Dramatic video shows train plow into Colorado police car with woman handcuffed in back seat
Dramatic police video shows the moment a freight train struck a police patrol vehicle with a 20-year-old woman handcuffed in the back seat. CBS Colorado reports the Fort Lupton Police Department provided the station with 8 minutes of edited video from the incident.
Reporter Dillon Thomas tweeted an edited excerpt of the video, which shows police talking to the woman, the train hitting the vehicle, and police rushing toward the damaged car requesting immediate medical assistance.
TRAIN HITS OCCUPIED POLICE CAR
— Dillon Thomas (@DillonMThomas) September 23, 2022
VIDEO: With a suspect detained in the back seat, a police car is crushed by a fast-moving train in Weld County
Suspect was handcuffed in the back seat as the train blared a horn leading up to the crash. I will have more on @CBSNewsColorado 4/5/6p pic.twitter.com/P0w3hd5Bs2
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation says Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, of Greeley, remained hospitalized Monday with serious bodily injuries sustained in the crash. She is expected to survive.
Multiple law enforcement agencies responded to a report of a road rage incident involving a firearm in Fort Lupton on Friday evening. A Platteville police officer stopped Rios-Gonzalez's car just past a set of railroad tracks and parked the patrol vehicle on the crossing.
She was placed in the back of the police vehicle, which was hit by the train as officers were searching her car.
"Officers cleared the suspect vehicle to determine if anyone else was in the vehicle," the Fort Lupton Police Department said in a statement. "Within a matter of seconds, the Platteville's police vehicle, which contained the female detainee, was struck by a northbound train. Fort Lupton Officers immediately summoned medical assistance and began life sustaining measures."
The Denver Post reported Monday that the Platteville Police Department had placed one of the officers involved on paid administrative leave. Police Chief Carl Dwyer, in an email to the newspaper, didn't disclose the officer's name and declined to answer other questions about the traffic stop and crash.
The Fort Lupton Police Department is investigating the road rage report, while the Colorado State Patrol is investigating the crash. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is looking into the woman's injury while she was in police custody.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.