One of the veterans injured when a freight train struck a parade float last week, an accident that killed four people, plans to file a lawsuit against Union Pacific, the man’s attorney’s said Monday.
According to Reuters, U.S. Army Sgt. Richard Sanchez, who was among 16 people hurt in the crash last Thursday in Midland, Texas, is the first victim who has announced his plan to sue. Four veterans died in that tragedy.
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One of Sanchez’s lawyers, Bob Pottroff, disputes the National Transportation Safety Board’s claim that the train’s signal system worked as it should have, providing a 20-second warning, according to Reuters. But Pottroff maintains that the signal should have provided a warning of 30 seconds or longer.
With that longer warning, the crossing safety gates could have come down before the float attempted to cross the tracks, according to the lawyer, Reuters reported. The gates reportedly came down on top of the float, toward its end, when it was already crossing the tracks.
In the collision veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were seated on chairs on a flatbed truck, a float that was part of a parade honoring them. It started to go across the train crossing when it was struck by the Union Pacific train.
Union Pacific says that it was in compliance with all laws, and alleges that the driver of the flatbed truck crossed the train tracks despite the red warning lights.
Sanchez pushed his wife Heather off the float, saving her life, according to Reuters. But he injured his spinal cord and hasn’t had any feeling in his legs since the crash, the wire service said. Sanchez is a wounded warrior who lost the use of his right arm in combat in Afghanistan, Reuters reported.