When a Train Strikes a FedEx Truck in Hill County — Your Family’s Rights and What Happens Next
A FedEx manager called your mother. That is how your family found out. A voice on the phone saying your son, your brother, had been in an accident while doing his job — the delivery work he was proud of, the job he was about to mark one year at in October. By the time someone got an officer on the line, the answer was already the worst thing a family hears. He did not make it.
Then silence. FedEx released a statement to reporters. Union Pacific released a statement to reporters. Neither one called your family. Days passed. The GoFundMe for his funeral sat at a fraction of what burial actually costs. And you found yourself sitting at a kitchen table in Oak Cliff, realizing that the two companies whose vehicles met at a grade crossing near FM 67 and Highway 81 in Hill County — neither one was coming to you with answers.
That silence is not an accident. It is a strategy. While your family grieves, the risk-management teams at both corporations have already been working for days — securing evidence, taking statements, setting reserves, and building the narrative that will be used to minimize what your loved one’s life was worth. We are writing this page so that you understand what is happening behind that silence, what the law gives your family in Texas, and what you can do to keep evidence from disappearing before anyone ever tells you it existed.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We handle commercial-vehicle and wrongful-death cases in Texas. Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court. Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decide how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like your family — and now sits on your side of the table, in English or in Spanish. This page is not a sales pitch. It is the education we would give you if you were sitting across from us right now, at 2 a.m., with a folder of questions and a phone that has not rung.
The Collision Near FM 67 and Highway 81 — What the Public Record Shows
On July 23, a FedEx delivery truck was struck by a Union Pacific train at a grade crossing in Hill County, south of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, near the intersection of FM 67 and Highway 81 near Itasca. A 25-year-old FedEx team member riding as a passenger in the truck died from his injuries. The driver was transported in critical condition. The train’s crew was uninjured. The Texas Department of Public Safety is investigating. The Itasca Police Department and the Hill County Sheriff’s Department responded to the scene.
FedEx issued a public statement:
“We are deeply saddened at the loss of our team member. Our thoughts remain with their family and loved ones, and with our other team member as they recover from their injuries. This remains an active investigation, and we refer any additional questions to local authorities.”
Union Pacific confirmed the location — near FM 67 and Highway 81 — and said the train’s crew was uninjured. Both companies directed questions to local authorities. Neither company has contacted the family directly.
That last fact matters more than you might think. When two corporate defendants each point at the other and at “local authorities,” they are buying time. Time is the one thing your family does not have, because the evidence that decides this case is already dying on a clock we will explain in detail below.
Who Can Be Held Accountable — The Corporate Defendants in a Train-Truck Collision
A train-truck collision is not a two-car wreck with bigger vehicles. It is a collision between two massive corporate entities — each with its own insurance tower, its own lawyers, its own investigators, and its own incentives to point the finger at the other. Your family’s case does not have one defendant. It has a web of them, and understanding that web is the first step in understanding what the case is worth.
Union Pacific Railroad — The Train Operator
Union Pacific is one of the largest Class I freight railroads in North America. It operates thousands of miles of track through Texas, including through Hill County. As a Class I railroad, Union Pacific is subject to the Federal Railroad Administration’s safety regulations — rules that govern everything from locomotive event recorders to grade-crossing signal maintenance to the train horn rule. The railroad maintains its own claims department and rapid-response teams that deploy to collision scenes within hours. By the time the DPS arrived at FM 67 and Highway 81, Union Pacific’s people were almost certainly already there or en route.
The railroad’s potential exposure in this collision turns on several questions that the investigation will address: Was the train operating within the posted speed for that crossing? Did the crew sound the horn as required by federal regulation at the approach to the crossing? Did the crossing signal system activate properly — gates down, lights flashing, bells ringing — or did it fail? Were the crossing signals maintained and inspected on the schedule federal law requires? Was vegetation or terrain obstructing the sight lines a driver would need to see an approaching train? Each of these questions points to a different regulatory duty and a different piece of evidence — and each piece of evidence is held by the railroad or a third-party vendor, not by your family.
FedEx — The Truck Operator and Employer
The truck involved was a FedEx delivery vehicle. FedEx is not a single entity — it is a corporate family with operating units that include FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and others, each with its own insurance structure and employment model. FedEx Express drivers are typically company employees; FedEx Ground historically operates through independent contractor models. The 25-year-old who died was described as a delivery driver approaching his one-year anniversary — which suggests he was an employee, not a contractor. That distinction matters enormously for the workers’ compensation analysis we will walk through below, because it determines whether the exclusive-remedy provision of Texas workers’ comp law applies.
FedEx, as a commercial motor carrier operating in interstate commerce, is subject to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s regulations under Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations. Those rules govern driver qualifications, hours of service, vehicle inspection and maintenance, and post-accident testing. The truck itself may carry a telematics system, a forward-facing dashcam, and an electronic logging device — each of which captured data that your family’s case may depend on. Our Texas corporate fleet truck accident practice works through exactly these corporate structures.
The Crossing Infrastructure — A Potential Third Defendant
The grade crossing itself is a designed system, and someone is responsible for its design and maintenance. At many rural Texas crossings, the warning devices may be passive — crossbucks and a stop sign — rather than active gates and flashing lights. The Federal Railroad Administration maintains a crossing inventory database that records the type of warning devices, the number of tracks, the maximum train speed, the average daily highway traffic, and the accident history for every grade crossing in the country. The crossing near FM 67 and Highway 81 has an entry in that database, and that entry is a public record.
If the crossing was equipped with active warning devices — gates, lights, bells — the question is whether they activated properly and whether they were inspected and maintained on the schedule federal law requires. If the crossing had only passive warning devices — crossbucks — the question is whether that level of warning was adequate given the train speed, the sight distance, the highway approach grade, and the traffic volume. The entity responsible for crossing design and signal maintenance could be the railroad, the Texas Department of Transportation, or a local government entity — and each has a different set of legal protections and notice requirements that we would evaluate immediately.
Your Loved One Was a Passenger — and That Changes Everything
The 25-year-old who died was riding as a passenger in the FedEx truck. He had no control over the vehicle. He could not steer, brake, or decide whether to stop at the crossing. Under Texas’s comparative-fault rules — which we explain below — his share of fault is effectively zero. That eliminates the most common defense the insurance companies deploy in vehicle collision cases: blaming the injured person. When the deceased was a passenger, the at-fault parties cannot argue that he contributed to the collision by his own negligence. His estate stands in the strongest possible legal position, with claims against every party whose negligence contributed to his death — Union Pacific, potentially the crossing infrastructure entity, and potentially others.
This is the fact a generalist might file away as a detail. It is not a detail. It is the fulcrum of the entire case.
Texas Wrongful Death Law — Your Rights and the Two-Year Clock
Texas law gives your family a legal claim for the death of your loved one, but it operates on a strict deadline and through a specific statutory framework that most families have never encountered until the worst day of their lives.
The Wrongful Death Act — Who Can File
Texas’s Wrongful Death Act allows certain family members to bring a claim when a person’s death is caused by the “wrongful act, neglect, carelessness, unskillfulness, or default” of another. The statute authorizes three categories of beneficiaries to file: the surviving spouse, the surviving children, and the surviving parents. Each has an independent claim for the losses they personally suffered.
For a 25-year-old who was unmarried with no children, the statutory beneficiaries are his parents. His brothers — who loved him, who lived with him, who are grieving alongside his parents — are not statutory wrongful-death beneficiaries under Texas law. That is a hard truth, and it is one we state plainly because families deserve honesty, not false comfort. The parents’ wrongful-death claim will seek compensation for the loss of their son’s companionship, the mental anguish of his loss, and the financial support he would have provided over his lifetime. If the parents do not file within a specific period, the executor of the estate may file on behalf of all beneficiaries.
The Survival Action — What the Estate Recovers
Separate from the wrongful-death claim, Texas law provides a survival action that belongs to the estate rather than to the individual family members. The survival claim seeks compensation for what the deceased person himself could have recovered had he survived — including the pain and suffering he experienced between the collision and his death, and the medical expenses incurred on his behalf before he died. In a train-truck collision, the survival question turns on whether the 25-year-old survived long enough to experience conscious pain and suffering. That determination depends on the medical records, the autopsy, and the timeline of events at the scene — evidence we would pursue immediately.
The Two-Year Statute of Limitations
Texas imposes a two-year statute of limitations on wrongful-death claims and survival actions. The clock starts on the date of death — July 23. Two years sounds like a long time when you are standing in a funeral home. It is not. The first months after a death are consumed by grief, burial arrangements, estate administration, and the practical chaos of a family reorganizing itself around an absence. Meanwhile, the defendants’ lawyers are building their defense file, the evidence is degrading, and witnesses’ memories are fading. The day your family calls a wrongful-death attorney is the day the clock starts working for you instead of against you.
Texas’s Comparative-Fault Rule — The 51 Percent Bar
Texas follows a modified comparative-negligence rule. In plain language: if the person bringing the claim is found to be 51 percent or more at fault for the collision, they recover nothing. If they are 50 percent or less at fault, their recovery is reduced by their percentage of fault. Because your loved one was a passenger — with no control over the truck and no ability to stop at the crossing — his fault percentage is effectively zero. The defendants cannot use comparative fault to reduce or eliminate his estate’s recovery. This is one of the strongest structural advantages a passenger’s claim can have, and it is why the defendants will work so hard to redirect the investigation toward other theories.
Damages — What Texas Allows Your Family to Recover
Texas wrongful-death law allows recovery for several categories of loss. Economic damages include the financial support the deceased would have provided to his parents over his expected lifetime, the cost of funeral and burial expenses, and any medical expenses incurred before death. Non-economic damages include the mental anguish the family suffers, the loss of the deceased’s companionship and society, and the loss of the relationship that was taken from them. In a survival action, the estate may recover the deceased’s pain and suffering before death.
Texas also allows exemplary — punitive — damages in cases where the defendant’s conduct rises to gross negligence. Gross negligence in Texas means an act or omission that involves an extreme degree of risk, coupled with actual awareness of that risk. Whether this case supports a gross-negligence claim depends on what the evidence reveals about the defendants’ knowledge and choices — the crossing signal maintenance records, the train crew’s actions, the truck’s inspection history, and any prior incidents at this crossing. Exemplary damages in Texas may be subject to statutory caps depending on the claims and conduct proven, but the economic damages stream — medical costs, lost earning capacity, funeral expenses — generally flows outside the cap.
The Value of a 25-Year-Old’s Life
Your loved one was 25 years old. He had approximately 40 years of working life remaining. Even at a modest wage, the present value of 40 years of earnings — calculated by a forensic economist who accounts for wage growth, inflation, and the time value of money — is substantial. A life-care planner and forensic economist build the dollar figure from the ground up: the deceased’s age, health, education, work history, expected wage trajectory, and the support he would have provided to his parents over their lifetimes. The human losses — the companionship, the mental anguish, the relationship between a mother and her oldest son — are separate and additional. Texas is one of the states where a jury may compensate the value of a life itself, not just the paychecks that stopped.
The Evidence That Disappears Fastest — and How to Freeze It
In a train-truck collision, the evidence that decides the case is held by the defendants — the railroad, the trucking company, and the crossing signal vendor — not by your family. Every piece of that evidence is on a clock. Some of it overwrites itself within days. Some of it can be legally deleted within months. All of it can be frozen by a preservation letter — a formal demand, sent the day you call, that puts the defendants on notice that the evidence must be kept and that its destruction will be treated as spoliation. This is why the preservation letter goes out before the funeral, not after the insurance company calls.
The Locomotive Event Recorder — The Train’s Black Box
Federal law requires that lead locomotives be equipped with event recorders — the railroad equivalent of an airplane’s flight data recorder. The event recorder captures speed, direction, time, distance, throttle position, brake applications, horn activation, and other operating data in the seconds before, during, and after a collision. This data is the single most important piece of evidence in a train-truck collision case, because it shows what the train was doing — how fast it was moving, whether the horn was sounded, when the brakes were applied — at the moment of impact. Union Pacific holds this data. We would subpoena it immediately, and we would demand that it be preserved within hours of being retained — because event recorder data can be overwritten or the recorder itself can be serviced and cleared.
The Forward-Facing Locomotive Camera
Many Union Pacific locomotives are equipped with forward-facing video cameras that record the track ahead. If this locomotive had one, the footage would show the crossing, the warning devices, the truck’s approach, and the collision itself — in real time, from the train’s perspective. That footage is preserved on a digital storage system that may overwrite on a schedule. The preservation letter must reach Union Pacific before the overwrite cycle completes.
The Crossing Signal System Logs
If the crossing near FM 67 and Highway 81 was equipped with active warning devices — gates, flashing lights, bells — the signal system maintains logs that record when the devices activated, whether they functioned correctly, and any faults or malfunctions. Federal regulations require railroads to inspect and test crossing signal systems on a regular schedule, and records of those inspections are critical evidence. If the signals failed to activate, or activated too late for a truck traveling at the posted speed to stop, the signal system logs are the proof. These records are held by the railroad or by a third-party signal maintainer, and a preservation letter must reach both entities.
The FRA Crossing Inventory and Accident History
The Federal Railroad Administration maintains a public database of every grade crossing in the United States — the Grade Crossing Inventory. The entry for the crossing near FM 67 and Highway 81 records the type of warning devices installed, the number of tracks, the maximum train speed, the average daily highway traffic, and — critically — the accident history. If this crossing had prior collisions or near-misses, that history is evidence of notice — proof that the railroad and the responsible entities knew this crossing was dangerous and had the opportunity to upgrade the warning devices before your loved one was killed. That record is public, and we pull it on day one.
The FedEx Truck’s Telematics and Electronic Logging Data
FedEx delivery trucks are equipped with telematics systems that capture vehicle speed, location, braking, and driver inputs. The electronic logging device records the driver’s hours of service — information that can reveal whether fatigue was a factor. If the truck had a forward-facing dashcam, the footage would show the driver’s view of the crossing — the warning devices, the approach, and whatever the driver saw (or did not see) in the moments before the collision. FedEx holds this data, and federal regulations require that electronic logging records be retained for a period of months. After that retention period, deletion is legal. The preservation letter freezes the data before that clock runs out.
Post-Accident Testing Records
Federal regulations require post-accident drug and alcohol testing for commercial drivers involved in fatal collisions. The results of the FedEx driver’s post-accement testing — and the train crew’s post-incident testing, if applicable — are evidence that must be preserved and demanded.
The Scene Itself — Skid Marks, Debris, Sight Lines
The physical evidence at the crossing — skid marks (or their absence, which is itself telling), the debris field, the final resting positions of the truck and the train, the sight lines from the highway approach to the tracks, and the condition of the warning devices — begins to change the moment the wrecker arrives. Photographs taken by DPS and the responding agencies are part of the official investigation file, but that file is not immediately available to the family. An independent scene investigation, conducted as quickly as possible after the collision, preserves evidence that the official investigation may not capture — the grade of the highway approach, the vegetation that may have obstructed the view of the tracks, the distance at which a train becomes visible to a driver approaching the crossing.
What Destruction Costs the Defendant
When a defendant lets required evidence die after receiving a preservation notice, the law answers. In Texas, a court may give an adverse-inference instruction — telling the jury that they may assume the lost or destroyed evidence was as damaging to the defendant as the plaintiff claims it was. The court may also impose sanctions. The bar for the harshest sanctions is high, but the pressure begins the moment the preservation letter is on file. The letter is not a formality. It is the first shot fired in the evidence war, and in a train-truck collision, the evidence war is the entire case.
The Money — Insurance Coverage and What This Case Is Worth
Understanding what a case is worth requires understanding where the money comes from. In a train-truck collision, the money comes from two entirely different insurance towers — one belonging to the railroad, one belonging to the trucking company — plus a workers’ compensation system that provides a separate, no-fault stream of benefits. Knowing which policies exist, in what order they pay, and how they interact is half the value of the case.
Union Pacific’s Coverage Tower
As a Class I railroad, Union Pacific maintains either a massive self-insurance program or a layered commercial insurance tower — potentially tens of millions of dollars or more in available coverage. Railroads are among the most heavily insured defendants in the transportation industry. The coverage does not sit in a single policy; it stacks in layers, with a self-insured retention at the bottom (the railroad’s own money, paid before any commercial insurance kicks in), followed by excess layers that activate as damages climb. The self-insured retention is a pressure point: when the railroad’s own dollars are the first money out the door, the company has a direct financial incentive to resolve the claim — and a direct financial incentive to fight it.
FedEx’s Coverage Tower
FedEx, as an interstate commercial motor carrier, is subject to federal financial-responsibility minimums. The federal minimum for general freight carriers is $750,000 — but a company of FedEx’s scale carries far more, either through self-insurance or a layered commercial tower that may reach into the tens of millions. The specific FedEx operating unit involved — Express, Ground, or another entity — determines which policy applies, and identifying the correct entity and policy is one of the first tasks in the case.
The Workers’ Compensation Fork — Two Lanes, and the One That Matters Most
Your loved one was a FedEx employee, killed in the course of his work. This creates two lanes of recovery, and your family likely knows about only one of them.
The first lane is workers’ compensation death benefits. If FedEx subscribes to Texas workers’ compensation — and a company of its size almost certainly does — the deceased’s eligible dependents (his parents, in this case) are entitled to death benefits through FedEx’s workers’ comp carrier. These benefits include a burial allowance and weekly income-replacement payments to eligible dependents. Workers’ comp is no-fault: you do not have to prove anyone was negligent to receive it. But it is also capped. The benefits are calculated by formula, and they do not compensate the family for the human losses — the companionship, the mental anguish, the relationship that was taken.
The second lane is the third-party wrongful-death claim. Texas workers’ comp law provides what is called the exclusive-remedy provision: an employee (or the employee’s estate) generally cannot sue the employer directly for negligence — the workers’ comp benefits are the exclusive remedy against the employer. But that exclusivity bar does NOT extend to third parties. The employee’s estate can bring a full wrongful-death claim against Union Pacific Railroad, against any crossing-infrastructure entity, and against any other third party whose negligence contributed to the death. This third-party claim seeks the full measure of damages — economic and non-economic — that workers’ comp never pays.
The third-party claim is where the real value of this case lives. Workers’ comp death benefits put money on the table quickly, but the wrongful-death claim against Union Pacific — with its massive coverage tower, its federal regulatory duties, and its grade-crossing safety obligations — is what compensates your family for what was actually taken.
There is one more thing the family needs to know about the workers’ comp fork: if the estate recovers money from a third party (Union Pacific), the workers’ comp carrier has a subrogation lien — a legal right to be reimbursed for the death benefits it paid out of the third-party recovery. This is not a reason to avoid the third-party claim. It is a reason to pursue it aggressively, because the third-party recovery should far exceed the workers’ comp lien, and the family keeps the difference.
The Gross-Negligence Exception Against the Employer
There is one narrow exception to the exclusive-remedy bar: if the employer’s conduct amounted to gross negligence — an extreme degree of risk coupled with actual awareness of that risk — the estate may bring a direct claim against the employer despite the workers’ comp exclusivity. Whether the facts of this collision support a gross-negligence theory against FedEx depends on what the evidence reveals about the truck’s maintenance, the driver’s training and qualifications, the route and schedule, and whether FedEx had notice of any dangerous conditions at this crossing or with this driver. This is a high bar, but it is one we would evaluate from the first day.
What the Case Is Worth — Honestly
We cannot tell you on a page what your family’s case is worth, because the number is built from the evidence — and the evidence has not been collected yet. What we can tell you is how the number is built, so that when an adjuster offers a fraction of it, you will know.
A wrongful-death claim for a 25-year-old killed in a commercial collision involves: the present value of his lost earning capacity over a 40-year working life (calculated by a forensic economist from his age, education, work history, and expected wage trajectory); the financial support he would have provided to his parents over their lifetimes; funeral and burial expenses; the mental anguish of his parents; the loss of his companionship and society; and, in the survival action, the pain and suffering he experienced before death. If the evidence supports a gross-negligence finding, exemplary damages may be available.
The firm has recovered $2.5 million-plus in truck-crash cases and $50 million-plus in total recoveries. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. The number in your case will depend on the evidence we find, the defendants we identify, the coverage we pursue, and the forum where the case is filed. What we can promise is that we will build the number from the ground up — not take the first figure an adjuster puts on a check.
The Medicine of a Train-Truck Collision — What the Forces Do to a Human Body
A freight train and a delivery truck occupy different orders of magnitude. A loaded Union Pacific freight train can weigh thousands of tons — 10,000 tons or more depending on the consist. A FedEx delivery truck weighs between 10,000 and 25,000 pounds depending on the vehicle and its load. The force differential is roughly 1,000-to-1 or greater. When a train of that mass strikes a truck of that mass, the truck does not stop the train. The train drives through the truck, and the energy transfer is catastrophic.
The Mechanism of Injury
In a grade-crossing collision, the truck is typically struck broadside — the train hitting the truck’s passenger compartment or cargo box as the truck crosses the tracks. The impact forces are applied across the vehicle’s structure in a direction it was not designed to resist. The passenger compartment collapses inward. The occupants experience massive deceleration forces as the vehicle is accelerated sideways by the train’s momentum. The human body, inside that collapsing compartment, is subjected to blunt-force trauma, crush injuries, and rapid deceleration that can tear internal organs from their attachments.
For the passenger — the 25-year-old who died — the cause of death was likely one or a combination of: massive blunt-force trauma to the chest or abdomen (rupturing the liver, spleen, or aorta); traumatic brain injury (from the head striking the vehicle interior or from the deceleration forces alone); crush injuries to the thorax or pelvis (from the collapsing passenger compartment); or internal bleeding from organ damage. The autopsy report — which we would obtain as part of the estate’s case — will document the specific injuries and the mechanism of death.
For the driver, who survived in critical condition, the injuries are likely catastrophic: traumatic brain injury (ranging from a bleed requiring surgical decompression to diffuse axonal injury from rapid deceleration); internal organ damage requiring emergency surgery; spinal fractures or spinal cord injury; crush injuries to extremities; and possibly traumatic amputations. The driver’s medical course — and the life-care plan his case will require — will extend over years or decades.
What the Family Sees — and What the Medical Record Proves
The family sees the funeral. The medical record sees the mechanism. The autopsy report, the EMS run sheet, the emergency-department records, the imaging studies, and the operative reports tell the story of what happened to the 25-year-old’s body between the collision and his death. That story matters legally because it determines the survival claim — the compensation for the pain and suffering he experienced between impact and death, however brief or prolonged that interval was. If he survived for minutes after the collision — conscious, in pain, aware of what was happening — the survival action has value. The medical records and the autopsy establish that interval.
The Trauma-Flight Reality in Hill County
Itasca is a small community in rural Hill County, roughly 50 miles south of Fort Worth and 60 miles southwest of Dallas. When a train-truck collision produces critical injuries at a rural grade crossing near FM 67 and Highway 81, the nearest hospital is in Hillsboro — the county seat — but a critically injured patient needs a trauma center, not a community hospital. The nearest Level I trauma centers are in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex: Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas or John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. That is a helicopter flight of 30 to 45 minutes, plus the time for ground EMS to reach the rural crossing, stabilize the patient, and load them for transport. In a collision of this severity, those minutes are the difference between life and death — and they are also part of the damages story, because delayed access to definitive trauma care worsens outcomes.
The Insurance Adjuster’s Playbook — and How to Counter Every Play
Lupe Peña spent years inside a national insurance-defense firm. He sat in the rooms where adjusters are trained, where claims are valued by software, and where the decision to deny, delay, or lowball is made. The plays below are not theoretical. They are the standard operating procedure for the claims departments of major corporate defendants after a fatal collision — and your family deserves to know each one before it happens.
Play 1: The Friendly “Just Checking In” Call
Within days of the collision, someone will call your family. The voice will be warm, sympathetic, professional. They will say they are “just checking on you” or “wanting to make sure you’re okay.” They will ask if you would be willing to “just tell us what happened” — on a recording. That recording is engineered to capture statements that can be used against your family’s claim: a moment of uncertainty about the timeline, a comment about your loved one’s driving habits, an acknowledgment that you “don’t really know what happened.” Every word is transcribed and indexed for use in depositions and at trial.
The counter: Do not give a recorded statement. Not now, not ever, without your attorney present. You are not required to give one. The adjuster will tell you it is “standard procedure” and that it will “help resolve your claim faster.” It will not. It will help the adjuster build the defense file. Every conversation with an insurance representative goes through your lawyer — that is not a tactic, it is a protection.
Play 2: The Quick Settlement Check
A check may arrive at your family’s address within weeks — sometimes before the funeral bills are settled, sometimes before the autopsy is complete. It will be accompanied by a release — a document that, once signed, extinguishes your family’s right to pursue any further compensation from the company. The check will look substantial in the context of a family struggling to afford burial. It will be a fraction of what the case is worth. The adjuster is counting on the family’s financial pressure to override their patience.
The counter: Do not sign anything from any insurance company — not a release, not a medical authorization, not a “sworn statement” — without an attorney reviewing it. A release signed under financial duress is still a release. The time to accept a settlement is after the evidence is collected, the damages are calculated, and the full coverage is identified — not before the funeral.
Play 3: The “We Need More Information” Delay
The adjuster will tell your family that they “need more information” to evaluate the claim — the DPS report, the medical records, the autopsy. The DPS investigation can take months. The adjuster knows this. The delay serves a purpose: the longer the claim sits, the closer the statute of limitations gets, and the more financial pressure builds on the family. The adjuster is not waiting for information. The adjuster is waiting for the family to get desperate enough to accept less.
The counter: The preservation letter, the evidence demands, and the claim documentation go out on our schedule, not the adjuster’s. We set the timeline. We build the file. We move the case toward a filing deadline the defendants must respect — because a lawsuit changes the posture overnight.
Play 4: Shifting Fault Between the Defendants
Union Pacific’s claims team will point at the FedEx truck — the driver failed to stop at the crossing, failed to yield, failed to obey the warning devices. FedEx’s claims team will point at Union Pacific — the signals failed, the train was speeding, the horn was not sounded, the crossing design was inadequate. Each defendant’s insurance carrier will argue that the other defendant bears the majority of the fault, and that “their share” of the responsibility reduces the compensation your family can recover.
The counter: Your loved one was a passenger. His fault is zero. The defendants can argue about their respective shares all they want — and under Texas’s proportionate-responsibility rules, each defendant is responsible for its own percentage of the total fault. Your family’s recovery is not reduced by the defendants’ finger-pointing unless one of them successfully assigns fault to your loved one, which they cannot do for a passenger. We build the case against every defendant independently, and let the jury sort the percentages.
Play 5: Social Media Surveillance
The claims department — or a vendor they hire — will monitor your family’s social media accounts. A photograph of a family dinner, a post about a birthday, a moment of laughter captured at a memorial — all of these can be screenshotted and presented out of context to argue that the family is “not really suffering” or that the grief is “not as severe as claimed.” This is standard practice in wrongful-death cases, and it is invasive.
The counter: Set all social media accounts to private. Do not post about the collision, the case, the defendants, the insurance companies, or the legal process. Do not discuss the case online. Grief is not linear — a family that laughs at a memory one day and weeps the next is grieving normally — but the adjuster is not looking for nuance. They are looking for screenshots.
How a Case Like This Is Built and Won
Here is how a train-truck wrongful-death case is actually built — not the theory, but the work, in the order it happens.
Week One: The Preservation Letter and the Evidence Hold
The day you call, the preservation letter goes out — to Union Pacific, to FedEx, to any crossing-signal vendor, and to any government entity responsible for the crossing. The letter demands that the locomotive event recorder data, the forward-facing camera footage, the crossing signal logs, the inspection records, the telematics and ELD data, the dashcam footage, the post-accident testing results, the driver qualification file, the vehicle maintenance records, and all internal communications about the collision be preserved. The letter creates a legal duty: if any of that evidence is destroyed after the letter is received, the court may instruct the jury to assume the worst. The clock on the fastest-dying evidence — the camera footage, the event recorder — starts running the moment the collision happens. The preservation letter is the only tool that stops it.
Weeks One Through Four: The Independent Investigation
While the DPS investigation proceeds, our independent investigation runs in parallel. We pull the FRA crossing inventory record for the crossing near FM 67 and Highway 81. We obtain the 911 call records and the dispatch logs. We photograph and measure the crossing — the sight lines, the highway approach grade, the warning devices, the vegetation, the distance from the stop bar to the nearest rail. We identify and interview witnesses before their memories fade. We obtain the autopsy report and the medical examiner’s findings. We build a timeline of the collision from the independent evidence — not from the defendants’ narratives.
Months One Through Three: The Records and the Experts
Once the lawsuit is filed, discovery begins — the formal process of demanding documents, answers, and evidence from the defendants. We serve Union Pacific with demands for the event recorder data, the train crew’s statements, the signal inspection records, the train’s speed data, the horn activation record, and every internal communication about this crossing and this collision. We serve FedEx with demands for the driver’s qualification file, the hours-of-service records, the telematics data, the vehicle maintenance history, the route and schedule, and any prior incidents involving this driver or this route.
We bring in experts: a forensic reconstruction engineer who will model the collision from the physical evidence — the speed of the train, the speed of the truck, the braking distance, the sight distance, the timing of the crossing signals. A railroad-safety expert who will evaluate whether the crossing warning devices were adequate and whether the railroad met its federal obligations. A forensic economist who will calculate the present value of the 25-year-old’s lost earning capacity. A life-care planner, if the driver survives with catastrophic injuries, who will build the cost of his future medical care over a lifetime.
Months Three Through Twelve: Depositions and the Defense
The depositions are where the case is won or lost. Under oath, the train crew explains what they saw, what they heard, when they sounded the horn, when they applied the brakes, and whether they had time to stop. The signal maintainer explains when the crossing signals were last inspected, what the inspection found, and whether any faults were reported. The FedEx safety director explains the driver’s training, the route assignment, and the company’s knowledge of this crossing. Each deposition is transcribed and locked — every statement the witness makes under oath is evidence the jury will hear.
The Resolution
Most wrongful-death cases resolve before trial — through settlement, mediation, or a combination of both. But the settlement number is built from the evidence, the experts, and the depositions — not from the adjuster’s first offer. If the defendants refuse to pay what the case is worth, the case goes to trial in a Hill County courtroom, where the jury will be twelve people from this community — your neighbors, people who drive these same roads, who know these crossings, who understand what it means to lose a 25-year-old son and brother to a collision that should not have happened.
The First 72 Hours — What to Do Now
If you are reading this in the hours or days after the collision, here is what matters most, in order.
Medical First — Even If You Think You Are Fine
If anyone in the family was in the vehicle or at the scene, they need a medical evaluation. The adrenaline of a catastrophic event masks injuries — concussions, internal injuries, spinal injuries — that may not surface for hours or days. Document everything: every medical visit, every symptom, every conversation with a medical professional. If your loved one was treated before his death, obtain the medical records. They are evidence.
Do Not Sign Anything
We have said this before, and we will say it again: do not sign a release, a medical authorization, a sworn statement, or any document from any insurance company — yours, FedEx’s, or Union Pacific’s — without an attorney reviewing it. A release is permanent. An authorization lets the insurance company into your medical records. A sworn statement is a deposition before there is a lawsuit. None of these help your family. All of them help the defendants.
Do Not Give a Recorded Statement
No insurance adjuster — from any company — gets a recorded statement from your family without your attorney present. The adjuster’s warmth is genuine; their purpose is not.
Do Not Post About the Collision
No social media posts about the collision, the case, the companies, the insurance process, or the legal proceedings. Set your accounts to private. Grief is your own. The adjuster’s surveillance is not.
Preserve What You Have
If you have photographs from the scene, texts from your loved one that day, anything that documents his work schedule or his route, preserve it. Do not delete anything. Do not turn over any device to anyone — including an insurance representative — without your attorney’s guidance.
Appoint a Personal Representative
On a wrongful death, Texas law requires that a personal representative be appointed to bring the claim on behalf of the estate. This is a court process, and we handle it for the family. The personal representative is the one person Texas law authorizes to stand in the deceased’s shoes and pursue the claims. The appointment can happen quickly, and it is one of the first steps in the legal process.
Call
The day you call is the day the preservation letter goes out, the evidence clock stops, and the defendants’ lawyers know that your family is represented. The call is free. The consultation is free. We work on contingency — we do not get paid unless we win your case. If we are not the right fit for your family, we will tell you. But the call itself — the hour we spend answering your questions — costs nothing and changes everything.
Why Itasca and Hill County Matter to Your Case
Itasca is a small community in the southwestern corner of Hill County, a rural county of approximately 35,000 people between the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex and Waco. US Highway 81 runs through the county’s western side, connecting small towns that grew up along the rail lines. FM 67 is a farm-to-market road that crosses the county’s agricultural land. The grade crossing where this collision occurred — near the intersection of FM 67 and Highway 81 — is the kind of rural crossing that many drivers pass every day without thinking about it, until the day a train and a truck arrive at the same time.
The Courthouse
If this case goes to trial, it will be filed in the Hill County district courts in Hillsboro — the county seat, about 10 miles north of Itasca. The jury that decides what your loved one’s life was worth will be twelve people from Hill County — people who drive these roads, who know these crossings, who understand the rhythm of freight trains through rural communities. The home field is theirs. The defendants’ lawyers will fly in from towers in other cities. The contrast between a local family and a multinational corporation’s defense team is part of the story we tell.
The Rail Corridor
Union Pacific’s lines through Hill County are major freight corridors — tracks that carry goods between the DFW metroplex and points south, through Waco and beyond. The trains that run through this area are long, heavy, and fast. The crossings along these tracks vary in their warning devices: some have gates and flashing lights; others have only crossbucks and a stop sign. The adequacy of the warning devices at the crossing near FM 67 and Highway 81 is one of the central questions of this case — and the FRA crossing inventory record will tell us what was installed, when it was last inspected, and whether the federal government or the railroad had classified this crossing as a candidate for upgraded warning devices.
The Rural Reality
In a rural county like Hill County, the distance to definitive trauma care is part of the damages story. A critically injured person at a grade crossing near Itasca is an hour or more — by ground and then by helicopter — from the nearest Level I trauma center. That delay affects survival, and it is part of the narrative the jury needs to hear. The rural character of this crossing also affects the evidence: there may be fewer witnesses, fewer cameras, and less immediate documentation than at an urban crossing. The preservation of what evidence does exist becomes even more critical.
The Season
July in Hill County is hot, dry, and dusty. The sun glare on east-west roads at dawn and dusk can be blinding. The vegetation at rural crossings grows fast in the Texas summer — a sight line that was clear in April may be obstructed by July. These are not atmospherics. They are factors in the reconstruction of what the driver could see as the truck approached the crossing, and they are evidence that must be captured before the seasons change and the conditions at the crossing no longer match what they were on July 23.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the family sue both Union Pacific and FedEx?
Yes. Your loved one’s estate has potential claims against multiple defendants. Union Pacific, as the railroad operating the train, faces claims for any negligence by its crew, any failure of its crossing signal system, and any inadequacy of the crossing warning devices. FedEx, as the employer, is subject to the workers’ compensation exclusive-remedy provision — meaning the estate generally cannot sue FedEx directly for negligence, but can pursue workers’ comp death benefits through FedEx’s carrier. If the evidence supports a finding of gross negligence against FedEx, a direct claim may be possible. The most significant third-party claim — the one with the largest potential recovery — is against Union Pacific Railroad.
How long does the family have to file a wrongful death claim in Texas?
Two years from the date of death. Texas’s wrongful-death statute of limitations runs from July 23 — the date of the collision. Two years sounds like a long time. It is not, given the time required for investigation, evidence preservation, expert analysis, and the legal process. The preservation letter, however, goes out the day you call — not two years from now.
The victim was a passenger — does that change the case?
It changes everything. A passenger has no control over the vehicle and cannot be assigned fault for the collision. Under Texas’s modified comparative-negligence rule, a plaintiff who is 51 percent or more at fault recovers nothing. A passenger’s fault is effectively zero, which means the defendants cannot use comparative fault to reduce or eliminate the recovery. The passenger’s estate stands in the strongest possible position to pursue every at-fault party — the railroad, the crossing infrastructure entity, and any other third party — for the full measure of damages.
What evidence disappears fastest after a train-truck collision?
The locomotive event recorder data and the forward-facing camera footage are the most time-sensitive — they can be overwritten or cleared during routine equipment servicing. The crossing signal system logs may overwrite on a cycle. The FedEx truck’s telematics and dashcam footage may be subject to a retention period after which deletion is legal. The physical evidence at the crossing — skid marks, debris, sight lines, vegetation — begins to change the moment the scene is cleared. A preservation letter, sent the day you call, puts all defendants on notice that this evidence must be kept.
Who is entitled to wrongful death compensation in Texas?
The surviving spouse, surviving children, and surviving parents. For a 25-year-old who was unmarried with no children, the statutory beneficiaries are his parents. His siblings are not wrongful-death beneficiaries under Texas law, though they may benefit indirectly through the survival action or through the estate’s recovery. This is a hard truth, and we state it honestly because families deserve to know the law before they build their expectations.
Is this a workers’ compensation case or a lawsuit?
It is both. Your loved one was a FedEx employee killed in the course of his work, which means the family may be entitled to workers’ compensation death benefits — a no-fault, capped benefit stream through FedEx’s workers’ comp carrier. Separately, the estate has a third-party wrongful-death claim against Union Pacific Railroad and any other third party whose negligence contributed to the death. The workers’ comp benefits provide immediate financial support; the third-party claim provides the full measure of compensation. If the third-party recovery exceeds the workers’ comp lien, the family keeps the difference.
What if the railroad crossing signals were not working?
If the crossing signals failed to activate — or activated too late for a truck traveling at the posted speed to stop — the railroad and the signal maintainer may be liable. The crossing signal system logs, the inspection records, and the maintenance history are the evidence that proves whether the signals functioned correctly. The FRA requires regular testing and inspection of crossing signal systems, and the records of those inspections are discoverable. A signal failure is not just negligence — it is evidence that the railroad knew or should have known the crossing was dangerous.
Should the family give a recorded statement to the insurance company?
No. Not to any insurance company — not FedEx’s, not Union Pacific’s, not the family’s own auto carrier — without an attorney present. A recorded statement is engineered to capture statements that can be used to minimize the claim. The adjuster’s warmth is genuine; the purpose of the recording is not. Every communication with the insurance companies goes through your lawyer.
How much is a train-truck wrongful death case worth?
We cannot give you a number on a page because the value is built from evidence that has not been collected yet. What we can tell you is how the number is constructed: the present value of a 25-year-old’s lost earning capacity over a 40-year working life; the financial support he would have provided to his parents; funeral and burial expenses; the mental anguish of his loss; the loss of his companionship and society; and, in the survival action, the pain and suffering he experienced before death. Union Pacific’s coverage tower — as a Class I railroad — is substantial. The firm has recovered $2.5 million-plus in truck-crash cases. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. The number in your case will be built from the evidence, the coverage, and the forum — and the first offer from the insurance company will be a fraction of it.
Does the family need to wait for the DPS investigation to be complete?
No. The DPS investigation is important, but it is not the only investigation, and your family should not wait for it to conclude before taking action. The DPS report may take months. Meanwhile, the evidence that decides the case is dying on a clock — the event recorder data, the camera footage, the crossing signal logs, the scene evidence. The independent investigation and the preservation letter run in parallel with the DPS investigation, not after it. The day you call is the day the evidence starts being protected.
Can the siblings file a wrongful death claim in Texas?
Under Texas’s Wrongful Death Act, the statutory beneficiaries are the surviving spouse, children, and parents. Siblings are not included. This is a painful truth for a family where the brothers were close — where the 25-year-old was “a brother to everyone.” The brothers’ grief is real and enormous, but their legal claim runs through different channels: if the parents do not file within a certain period, the executor of the estate may file on behalf of all beneficiaries, and the survival action (for the deceased’s own pain and suffering) is brought by the estate and distributed according to the probate code. We would explain every option honestly.
What should the family do right now?
Call. The call is free. The consultation is free. We work on contingency — we do not get paid unless we win. The preservation letter goes out the day you call. If we are not the right fit for your family, we will tell you. But the hour we spend answering your questions costs nothing and may change everything.
About Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC
We are a trial firm that takes commercial-vehicle, catastrophic-injury, and wrongful-death cases in Texas. We are not the counsel of record on this collision — we have not been retained by the family, and we have taken no action on this specific case. This page is legal information, not legal advice. But the education on this page is the education we would give any family facing this situation, and the work we describe is the work we do.
Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court. He is admitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He is a member of the Texas Trial Lawyers Association and the Houston Bar Association. He is lead counsel in the active $10 million-plus hazing lawsuit against Pi Kappa Phi and the University of Houston, filed in Harris County in November 2025. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer — a point guard who won a New England prep championship and was inducted into his school’s Hall of Fame — and he brings to every case the instinct to dig until the truth is on the table.
Lupe Peña is a former insurance-defense attorney. He spent years inside a national defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decide how to deny, delay, and devalue claims. He knows how the reserve is set in the first 48 hours, how the recorded-statement call is engineered, how the surveillance is deployed, and how the quick-check-with-a-release play works. He now uses that knowledge for injured clients and grieving families. He is fluent in Spanish — he conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter — and we serve your family fully in either language.
Hablamos Español.
The firm has recovered $50 million-plus in total, including $5 million-plus in brain-injury settlements, $3.8 million-plus in amputation cases, $2.5 million-plus in truck-crash recoveries, and $2 million-plus in maritime back-injury settlements. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. We work on contingency: 33.33 percent before trial, 40 percent if the case goes to trial. We do not get paid unless we win your case. The consultation is free. The call is free. The hotline is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week — by live people, not an answering service.
Call Now — 1-888-ATTY-911
The evidence at the crossing near FM 67 and Highway 81 is on a clock. The locomotive event recorder. The forward-facing camera. The crossing signal logs. The telematics. The scene. Every hour that passes without a preservation letter is an hour the defendants can use to let that evidence fade, overwrite, or disappear. The day you call is the day that clock stops working against your family and starts working for you.
1-888-ATTY-911. Free consultation. No fee unless we win. Hablamos Español. 24 hours a day, seven days a week.