While I respect the men and women in blue, this story doesn’t put police officers in a good light. A squad car was stuck on some train tracks as a train barreled towards it, but the cops abandoned a woman handcuffed in the back to save themselves. 

Cops leave a handcuffed woman for dead on the train tracks 

One Colorado woman named Yareni Rios is lucky to be alive after being in a squad car that was hit by a freight train. 

It’s unclear why the car was parked on the train tracks or why the cops weren’t in it. But Yareni was handcuffed in the back, unable to escape before the train smashed into the car. 

As a result, she suffered numerous broken bones and a traumatic brain injury. She was detained for allegedly waving a gun during a road rage fight. 

Officers didn’t seem to notice the locomotive with its blaring horn as it quickly approached the car. The first officer to notice repeated, “Oh my god”, as another officer yelled, “Stay back!” No effort was made to rescue Yareni or move the car off the train tracks. 

After a hard fight following the incident, Yareni was awarded $8.5 million during mediation for her lawsuit filed against the Platteville and Fort Lupton police departments and individual officers. Two were fired and criminally charged. 

Yareni is able to get up and move around but still faces physical and emotional impacts from the incident that may last for the rest of her life. But she is doing well for someone who was hit by a locomotive. 

The officers in the lawsuit include Platteville Police Sargent Pablo Vasquez and Fort Lupton Police Officer Jordan Steinke. 

Vasquez pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment and was sentenced to 12 months of unsupervised probation. 

Steinke was convicted of reckless endangerment and assault. She was sentenced to 30 months of supervised probation with 100 hours of community service to complete.