Pecos, Texas Train-Truck Collision: What Happened and What Your Family Needs to Know
If you are reading this because someone you love went to work on a Union Pacific railroad crew in West Texas and did not come home — or because you were inside a building in downtown Pecos when heavy equipment came through the wall — you are in a moment that no one prepared you for. Two railroad employees were killed. A train derailed. A tractor-trailer sat on the tracks for approximately one minute before the collision, and the National Transportation Safety Board is trying to determine why. You have probably already heard from someone representing a railroad interest or an insurance company. You may have been asked to give a statement. You may have been told that workers’ compensation or railroad death benefits are your only option.
They are not.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We handle commercial-vehicle and wrongful-death cases in Texas. This page is written for you: the family of a killed railroad employee, the person who was inside the Pecos Chamber of Commerce building when the collision sent heavy equipment through the structure, or the friend who is trying to help someone who cannot help themselves right now. Everything here is specific to what happened on December 18, 2024, at a grade crossing in Pecos, Reeves County, Texas — and to the legal rights that exist because of the unique way this collision unfolded.
Why Was a Tractor-Trailer Stopped on Active Railroad Tracks in Pecos?
The central investigative question is simple and devastating: a commercial tractor-trailer hauling heavy equipment came to a stop on active Union Pacific railroad tracks at a grade crossing in Pecos, and it remained there for approximately one minute before being struck by a train traveling at about 68 miles per hour. The train crew applied emergency brakes before impact. The collision derailed the train. The heavy equipment the truck was hauling was propelled airborne by the force of impact and struck the nearby Pecos Chamber of Commerce building, damaging the structure and injuring people inside.
The NTSB has recovered a data recorder from the wreckage and transported it to its laboratory for analysis. The Pecos police chief has stated that the three injuries to building occupants were minor. Two Union Pacific employees — crew members on the train — were killed.
Pecos sits at the western edge of the Permian Basin, one of the most active oil and gas production regions in the United States. The region generates sustained heavy commercial truck traffic hauling drilling equipment, frac sand, produced water, and oversized loads along Highway 285 and Farm-to-Market roads that intersect Union Pacific’s rail corridor through downtown Pecos. Grade crossings in this area frequently combine limited sight distances, rural signaling infrastructure, and high-clearance heavy-haul vehicles whose length and cargo weight can make clearing a crossing difficult if traffic ahead stops unexpectedly. The Federal Railroad Administration and TxDOT have documented grade-crossing safety as a systemic concern across rural West Texas corridors where oil-field trucking density has surged over the past decade.
That context matters. A tractor-trailer loaded with heavy equipment does not end up stopped on railroad tracks in a Permian Basin oil town by accident in the same way a passenger car might. The vehicle’s length, its cargo weight, the route it was on, the traffic conditions ahead of it at the crossing, the driver’s training on grade-crossing procedures, and the carrier’s decision to send that load through that corridor on that schedule — every one of those is a piece of why this happened, and every one of them is discoverable.
The Federal Rule Every Commercial Driver Must Follow at Every Grade Crossing
Federal regulations specifically govern commercial motor vehicle operation at railroad grade crossings. The rule at 49 CFR 392.10 requires commercial drivers to slow down, verify that the tracks are clear, and not stop on the tracks. A commercial vehicle stopped on active railroad tracks for a full minute is not a close call — it is direct evidence of a federal regulatory violation, and in Texas, that violation supports a claim of negligence per se.
Here is what the rule means in plain language. Before a commercial driver ever enters a grade crossing, that driver is required to confirm there is enough room on the far side for the entire truck and its cargo to clear the tracks completely. A tractor-trailer hauling heavy equipment is long. If traffic ahead is stopped or congested — which is routine in downtown Pecos during oil-field work cycles — the driver must wait behind the crossing until space opens up. Pulling onto the tracks and hoping the traffic ahead moves is not a judgment call the law permits. It is the exact scenario the regulation was written to prevent.
A one-minute stoppage on active tracks raises questions that the data recorder may answer: Was the driver distracted? Was the driver on a phone or a dispatch device? Had the carrier trained this driver on grade-crossing procedures? Was the vehicle mechanically capable of moving — or had it stalled, and if so, why? Were there prior mechanical defects logged in the carrier’s inspection records that went unrepaired? Was the driver fatigued, and if so, had the carrier’s hours-of-service practices contributed to that fatigue? Each of these questions points to a record that federal law forces into existence — and each record has a shelf life.
FELA: The Railroad Employee’s Powerful Federal Right After a Fatal Crossing Collision
The families of the two Union Pacific employees killed in this collision have a legal right that most people have never heard of and that the railroad is not eager to explain. It is called the Federal Employers’ Liability Act — FELA — and it is a century-old federal statute that governs claims by injured or killed railroad employees against their railroad employer. It is not workers’ compensation. It is a fault-based tort remedy that provides full damages — pain and suffering, lost future earnings, full medical costs — and it applies a causation standard that is the most plaintiff-friendly in American injury law.
The statute’s core provision, 45 U.S.C. § 51, states that a railroad is liable to an employee injured or killed while employed in interstate commerce for injury or death resulting:
“in whole or in part from the negligence of any of the officers, agents, or employees of such carrier, or by reason of any defect or insufficiency, due to its negligence, in its cars, engines, appliances, machinery, track, roadbed, works, boats, wharves, or other equipment.”
“In whole or in part” — those four words are the entire architecture of FELA. The railroad is liable if its negligence played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury or death. The Supreme Court confirmed this standard in Rogers v. Missouri Pacific R. Co. (1957) and reaffirmed it as recently as 2011 in CSX Transportation, Inc. v. McBride, holding that FELA does not incorporate common-law proximate cause and that the proper standard is whether the railroad’s negligence “played any part, even the slightest, in producing the injury.”
For the families of the two Union Pacific employees killed in Pecos, this means the claim against Union Pacific does not require proving the railroad was the primary cause of the collision. Even if the truck’s presence on the tracks was the dominant cause, FELA recovery requires only that some negligence by the railroad — in crossing design, signal timing, sight lines, train speed, crew training, or emergency response — played any part. That is a dramatically lower threshold than ordinary negligence.
FELA also provides two critical protections that ordinary injury law does not. First, under 45 U.S.C. § 53, the injured employee’s own contributory negligence does not bar recovery — it only reduces the award proportionally. And if the railroad violated any federal safety statute enacted for the protection of employees, the employee’s own negligence is wiped from the equation entirely. Second, under 45 U.S.C. § 54, the doctrine of assumption of risk is abolished — the railroad cannot defend itself by arguing that the crew knew the job was dangerous. Third, under 45 U.S.C. § 55, any contract, waiver, or company device designed to exempt the railroad from FELA liability is void — which means a release signed in the immediate aftermath, under pressure from a railroad claim agent, is legally worthless.
FELA claims carry a three-year statute of limitations under 45 U.S.C. § 56. The claim can be filed in state or federal court, and if the family chooses state court, the railroad generally cannot remove the case to federal court. In Texas, a FELA wrongful-death claim filed in Reeves County would be heard by a jury drawn from the community — people who know these roads, who know this railroad corridor, and who understand what oil-field trucking has done to traffic in this region.
Who Is Legally Responsible When a Truck Stops on Train Tracks?
This collision created a multi-defendant liability architecture that is more complex than most wrongful-death cases. Understanding who is responsible — and on what theory — is the first step in understanding what the case is worth.
The truck operating entity. The article does not identify the tractor-trailer’s operating carrier, its DOT number, or its fleet composition. Given the Pecos and Permian Basin location and the nature of the cargo — heavy equipment — the vehicle is likely associated with an oil-field services contractor, a heavy-haul equipment transport company, or an energy-sector logistics operator, all of which are common in this corridor. The carrier owes a duty to operate its commercial vehicle safely and not to stop on railroad grade crossings. Direct liability runs through respondeat superior (the carrier is responsible for its driver’s negligence) and potentially through negligent hiring, training, and supervision if discovery reveals the carrier failed to train the driver on grade-crossing procedures or retained a driver with prior safety violations.
FMCSA minimum financial responsibility for general freight is $750,000, but heavy-haul and oil-field-related transport operations typically carry substantially higher limits — often $1 million to $5 million or more — given elevated cargo weights and risk profiles. Identification of the carrier, its DOT safety record, its MCS-90 endorsement status, and its corporate structure will be a first-tier priority for any investigation.
The truck driver. The driver bears direct negligence for stopping and remaining on active railroad tracks for approximately one minute. The questions the NTSB is asking — why was the truck stopped? — point to potential distraction, fatigue, mechanical failure, or a decision to enter the crossing without sufficient clearance ahead. The driver’s electronic logging device data, hours-of-service records, phone records, and dash camera footage (if it exists and has been preserved) are the records that will answer these questions.
The cargo loading and securement entity. The heavy equipment the truck was hauling became airborne upon impact and struck the Pecos Chamber of Commerce building. Federal cargo securement standards under 49 CFR 393.100 et seq. require that articles be properly immobilized to prevent shifting or ejection. If the heavy equipment was not properly secured — if chains were insufficient, binders were inadequate, or the loading facility failed to follow the manufacturer’s securement specifications — this is a separate theory of liability for the building-injury claims and a potential punitive-damages aggravator. The loading facility records and securement documentation can be altered or discarded after an incident, which makes a preservation letter to the shipper and loader critical.
Union Pacific Railroad. Union Pacific faces potential FELA liability for the deaths of its own employees if railroad negligence — in crossing design, signal timing, sight lines, train speed, or crew response — contributed in any part to the collision. Union Pacific also faces potential third-party liability to the building occupants injured by the airborne equipment, as part of the cascade of events that propelled heavy equipment into an occupied structure. The railroad’s crossing signal event logs, track inspection records, signal maintainer records, and the train’s event recorder data are all discoverable.
The grade-crossing design or maintenance entity. If the crossing geometry, signaling infrastructure, or warning systems contributed to the truck becoming stopped or trapped on the tracks — whether through inadequate sight distance, poorly timed signals, or insufficient advance warning — the entity responsible for crossing design and maintenance (potentially Union Pacific, TxDOT, or the local jurisdiction) may bear additional liability. The FRA and TxDOT have documented grade-crossing safety as a systemic concern across rural West Texas, which means the design of this specific crossing is a legitimate subject of investigation.
The Evidence That Is Disappearing Right Now
Every piece of evidence that will decide this case is on a clock. Some of it is already gone. The rest is dying on schedules that the law permits — and that the defendants are counting on you not knowing about.
The tractor-trailer’s electronic data recorder (EDR). The NTSB has already recovered a data recorder from the wreckage. This device captured vehicle speed, braking inputs, stoppage duration, and driver actions in the minute before impact — it is the single most important piece of physical evidence in the trucking investigation. The NTSB has it, which means it is preserved. The preservation objective for the plaintiff’s side is securing access to the underlying data through discovery, independent of the NTSB’s own analysis.
The train’s event recorder. This device captured train speed (approximately 68 mph before impact), brake application timing, horn activation, bell operation, and crew response. It is critical for the FELA claims against Union Pacific. It is in NTSB custody. The plaintiff must file discovery demands to ensure access to the underlying data.
Railroad crossing signal and warning system event logs. These logs determine whether gates, lights, and bells activated properly and whether crossing design contributed to the truck being trapped on the tracks. Signal event logs may overwrite within 30 to 90 days depending on the system. A preservation letter to Union Pacific and the signal maintainer is urgent — every day that passes is a day closer to lawful destruction.
The truck driver’s electronic logging device (ELD) and hours-of-service records. These records establish whether driver fatigue, hours-of-service violations, or route-planning failures contributed to the failure to clear the crossing. ELD data can auto-overwrite within 8 to 30 days depending on the provider. Federal regulations at 49 CFR 395.8(k)(1) require motor carriers to retain records of duty status and supporting documents for not less than six months from the date of receipt. That six-month floor is the clock the defense is counting on you to miss. The preservation demand to the carrier must go out immediately.
Cargo securement documentation, chain and binder inventory, and loading records. Heavy equipment became airborne. If securement was inadequate, this is independent liability for the building-injury claims and a punitive-damages aggravator. Loading facility records and securement documentation can be altered or discarded post-incident. A preservation letter to the shipper and loader is critical.
Truck dash camera footage. If the truck was equipped with a dash camera — and many oil-field heavy-haul vehicles are — the footage may show driver behavior, road conditions, traffic ahead, the crossing approach, and the reason for stopping on the tracks. Dashcam systems can overwrite within hours to days depending on configuration. This footage may already be lost if not preserved.
CCTV from the Pecos Chamber of Commerce and nearby downtown businesses. Business surveillance footage may have captured the collision, the trajectory of the airborne equipment, the building impact, and the injuries to occupants. Business CCTV typically overwrites within 7 to 30 days. A rapid canvass of downtown Pecos buildings is required — every camera on every building within sight line of the crossing is a potential witness.
Carrier safety records, driver qualification file, prior violations, and DOT inspection history. These establish a pattern of safety deficiencies for negligent hiring, training, and retention claims. Personnel files and safety records can be modified post-incident. An immediate spoliation preservation letter to the carrier is required. The driver qualification file, mandated by 49 CFR Part 391, must contain the employment application, motor vehicle records, road-test certificate, annual reviews, and medical examiner’s certificate — and the carrier must retain it for as long as the driver is employed plus three years thereafter.
Post-crash drug and alcohol testing records. Federal regulations at 49 CFR 382.303 require post-accident controlled-substance and alcohol testing when a crash involves a fatality. Testing for alcohol must be attempted within 8 hours and for controlled substances within 32 hours — if the test was not administered within those windows, the carrier must document why. If the test was never done, that absence is its own evidence. Testing records for positive results, refusals, and violations must be retained for 5 years under 49 CFR 382.401.
When a defendant lets required evidence die after receiving a preservation notice, the law provides a remedy — an adverse-inference instruction, in which the jury may assume the lost record was as damaging as the plaintiff says it was. The leverage begins the moment the preservation letter is on file.
What a Train-Truck Collision Case Is Worth in Texas
The case-value architecture in this collision is driven by its dual-track structure: two railroad-employee wrongful deaths carry significant per-claim value given the FELA framework, and the third-party claims against the trucking company add an independent recovery path.
The two deceased Union Pacific employees represent catastrophic wrongful-death and survival claims. Railroad employees typically have strong wage trajectories, union benefits, and pension entitlements — meaning the economic-loss component alone (lost future earning capacity, lost benefits, lost pension value) is substantial. Non-economic damages include the mental anguish of surviving family members, loss of companionship and society, and the decedent’s conscious pain and suffering prior to death. Under FELA, these claims carry the advantage of the “any negligence” causation threshold, meaning even minimal railroad negligence in crossing design, signal timing, or train speed can support recovery against Union Pacific for the employee deaths.
Texas applies a modified comparative negligence standard with a 51 percent bar — a plaintiff cannot recover if 51 percent or more at fault, and recovery is reduced by the plaintiff’s percentage of responsibility. Texas does not impose general damage caps on personal injury or wrongful death claims outside the medical malpractice context. Punitive damages are available upon a showing of gross negligence, and a commercial vehicle stopped on active tracks for a full minute may support a conscious-indifference theory — particularly if investigation reveals driver distraction, mechanical unfitness, or the carrier’s prior grade-crossing violations.
Building occupants suffered injuries that the Pecos police chief characterized as minor. Even minor injuries warrant medical documentation, and building occupants may have claims against the trucking company, the cargo-securement entity, and potentially the railroad for the cascade of events that propelled heavy equipment into their workplace.
The overall case-value range, based on the dual-track architecture, is approximately $3 million on the low end to $25 million on the high end. The low end assumes shared liability between the truck and the railroad, comparative-fault reduction, and standard FMCSA minimum insurance on the trucking side with limited UP negligence findings. The high end assumes clear trucking negligence with gross-negligence findings supporting punitive damages, substantial carrier insurance limits or corporate assets (especially if an oil-field services company is involved), and concurrent FELA liability against UP for crossing-related negligence. Building-occupant injuries are described as minor and contribute modestly to the overall case value.
Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. Every figure here is an analytical framework, not a promise — the real number will be built from the evidence, the medical records, the economist’s projections, and the life-care plan.
The Insurance Adjuster’s Playbook After a Fatal Crossing Crash
Within days of a collision this severe, the machinery of defense begins moving. Railroad claim agents, trucking-company insurance adjusters, and their investigators are already working. Here is what they will do — and what you should do about it.
Play 1: The “just checking on you” recorded statement. Someone friendly will call to ask how you are doing and request that you “just tell us what happened” on a recording. This call is engineered to get you to say “I’m doing okay” or to characterize the events in a way that locks in a narrative favorable to the defense before you have had time to understand what actually happened. The counter: do not give a recorded statement to any railroad investigator, trucking company representative, or insurance adjuster without independent legal review. You are not required to, and anything you say will be transcribed and used against you.
Play 2: The fast settlement check with a release attached. A check may arrive quickly — sometimes before the funeral — with a release document printed for your signature. The release is designed to close your claim forever, for a fraction of what it is worth, before the medical results are in and before the NTSB has completed its preliminary findings. The counter: do not sign any authorization forms, releases, or benefit-election documents without independent legal review. Under FELA, 45 U.S.C. § 55 voids any contract, rule, or device designed to exempt the railroad from liability — a release signed under pressure from a railroad claim agent is legally unenforceable if its purpose was to shield the carrier.
Play 3: The “workers’ comp is your only option” conversation. Railroad employees and their families are frequently told that workers’ compensation or railroad death benefits are the only available remedy. For railroad employees, this is false. FELA is the exclusive remedy against the railroad employer — but it is a full tort remedy, not a capped benefit schedule, and it includes pain and suffering and full lost earning capacity. Additionally, third-party claims against the trucking company, the cargo-securement entity, and any other negligent non-employer are entirely separate from FELA and provide an independent recovery path.
Play 4: The social-media surveillance. Investigators will monitor social media accounts of injured parties and family members, looking for photographs or posts that can be taken out of context to minimize the claimed harm. A photograph at a family gathering can be misrepresented as “she is doing fine.” The counter: set all social media accounts to private, do not post about the collision or your injuries, and instruct family members to do the same.
Play 5: The “we need more time” delay aimed at the statute of limitations. The adjuster may express sympathy, promise a fair evaluation, and string the process along — month after month — until the filing deadline is dangerously close. In Texas, the statute of limitations for both wrongful death and personal injury is two years from the date of the incident. FELA carries a three-year federal deadline. The counter: do not let sympathy substitute for a filing deadline. The date the collision occurred — December 18, 2024 — starts every clock.
How a Train-Truck Wrongful Death Case Is Actually Built
Building a case like this is a chronological process that begins the day you call and does not end until every record has been produced, every expert has testified, and every defendant has been deposed under oath.
Week one: preservation. The preservation letter goes out to every potential defendant and every third-party data vendor — the trucking carrier, Union Pacific, the signal maintainer, the cargo loader, the shipper, the ELD provider, and any business whose CCTV may have captured the collision. The letter names every record by category: the truck’s EDR data, the train’s event recorder, the crossing signal logs, the driver’s ELD and hours-of-service records, the cargo securement documentation, the dash camera footage, the carrier’s driver qualification file, the post-crash drug and alcohol testing records, and the downtown Pecos CCTV. The letter puts every recipient on notice that evidence destruction after receipt is sanctionable.
Weeks two through eight: the NTSB docket. The NTSB’s investigation will produce a preliminary report, witness interviews, data recorder analysis, and scene documentation. While the NTSB’s final probable-cause findings are inadmissible in civil litigation under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(b), the underlying factual data — the measurements, the recorder downloads, the witness statements — remain discoverable and admissible through retained experts. The NTSB’s own regulations at 49 CFR § 835.3 distinguish between the Board’s conclusions (inadmissible) and the factual information its investigators gathered (admissible through investigator testimony). The plaintiff’s discovery strategy is to obtain the NTSB docket materials and then build independent expert analysis on top of the factual foundation.
Months two through six: expert deployment. A railroad grade-crossing safety expert analyzes the crossing design and signal performance. A commercial trucking safety expert examines the driver’s behavior, the carrier’s safety culture, and the training record. A cargo-securement specialist evaluates whether the heavy equipment was properly immobilized. A forensic accident reconstructionist models the collision dynamics and the equipment trajectory — how a 68-mph train impact launched the cargo into the Chamber of Commerce building and what that trajectory tells us about the securement failure.
Months six through twelve: discovery and deposition. The records come out. The safety director of the trucking company is deposed under oath about the carrier’s hiring practices, training protocols, and prior violations. The Union Pacific signal maintainer is deposed about the crossing’s warning system and its event logs. The loading facility’s supervisor is deposed about the securement procedures used on this specific load. Every deposition is an opportunity to lock in testimony before trial.
The Stowers demand. Under Texas doctrine, once the carrier’s insurance policy limits are confirmed, a properly documented settlement demand within those limits triggers the insurer’s duty to settle under Stowers Furniture Co. v. American Indemnity Co. and its progeny. If the insurer refuses a reasonable demand within policy limits and a later trial produces a verdict exceeding those limits, the insurer — not just the carrier — may be liable for the excess. The Stowers demand is calibrated to the carrier’s policy limits once coverage is confirmed, with meticulous documentation.
Mediation. Mediation should be deferred until NTSB preliminary findings are available, because the probable-cause determination will anchor both sides’ settlement positions. Rushing to mediate before the factual record is assembled is a way to leave money on the table.
The First 72 Hours: What to Do and What Never to Do
Medical first. If you were inside the Chamber of Commerce building and were injured — even if the police chief called your injuries “minor” — see a doctor. “Minor” is a word a police chief uses at a press conference. It is not a medical diagnosis. Soft-tissue injuries, concussions, and post-traumatic stress can present hours or days after impact. Get examined, get documented, and follow every referral. The medical record created in the first 72 hours is the record that defeats the defense’s later argument that your injuries were not caused by the collision.
Do not give a recorded statement. Not to the railroad. Not to the trucking company. Not to any insurance adjuster. Not to any investigator who shows up at your door. You are not required to, and anything you say will be transcribed and used against you.
Do not sign anything. No authorization forms. No releases. No benefit-election documents. No workers’ compensation paperwork. No railroad death-benefit elections. Nothing. Not without independent legal review. A document signed in grief in the first 72 hours can extinguish rights worth millions.
Do not post on social media. Not about the collision. Not about your injuries. Not about your loved one. Not about how you are feeling. Investigators are already watching.
Do preserve everything you have. Photographs you took at the scene. Text messages from that day. Medical records. Insurance correspondence. Anything the railroad or the trucking company has sent you — keep the envelope, keep the letter, keep the voicemail. Do not delete anything.
Do call a lawyer. The day you call is the day the preservation letters go out. The day you call is the day the evidence clock starts working for you instead of against you. The call is free. The consultation is confidential. And if we are not the right fit for your case, we will tell you.
The Medicine of a 68-MPH Train Collision
A train traveling at 68 miles per hour carries an amount of kinetic energy that is difficult to comprehend in human terms. A loaded freight train can weigh thousands of tons. The energy equation — kinetic energy equals one-half mass times velocity squared — means that doubling speed quadruples the energy, and a train’s mass is already orders of magnitude beyond any highway vehicle. When that force meets a stopped tractor-trailer, the truck does not stop the train. The train destroys the truck, derails, and distributes its energy in every direction — including upward, which is how the heavy equipment on the trailer was launched airborne.
For the two Union Pacific employees killed in the collision, the mechanism of injury is what trauma specialists call blunt-force deceleration trauma combined with the specific hazards of a locomotive cab in a derailment. The crew applied emergency brakes — meaning they knew the collision was coming and had seconds, not minutes, to react. The forces inside the cab during a derailment at that speed include rotational acceleration, ejection risk, crushing from displaced equipment, and thermal injury if fuel ignites. The medical record between injury and death — the emergency response timeline, the trauma center records if transport occurred, the cause of death as determined by the medical examiner — is the foundation of the survival claim for conscious pain and suffering.
For the building occupants, the mechanism is different but instructive. Heavy equipment that was propelled from the truck into the Chamber of Commerce building created a blunt-force impact and potential structural collapse scenario. The injuries described as minor may include lacerations, contusions, musculoskeletal strain, concussion, and post-traumatic stress — each of which has its own diagnostic pathway and its own long-term implications. A concussion that looks minor on the day of the collision can produce post-concussion syndrome that lasts months. A “minor” soft-tissue injury can become a chronic pain condition. The medical documentation created in the first weeks is what prevents the defense from later arguing that these injuries were pre-existing or unrelated.
Pecos is the county seat of Reeves County, situated along Interstate 20 approximately 200 miles east of El Paso. The nearest Level I trauma center is hours away — which means that for the railroad crew, the time between injury and definitive medical care was measured in ways that may have affected survival. For building occupants, the local emergency response and any transport to regional facilities is part of the medical story. Every minute of delay is part of the damages picture.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the family of a Union Pacific employee killed in this collision sue the railroad?
Yes. The Federal Employers’ Liability Act — FELA — is the exclusive remedy for a railroad employee injured or killed on the job, and it is a full tort claim, not a capped workers’ compensation benefit. The family can recover lost future earning capacity, full medical costs, pain and suffering, and loss of companionship. FELA’s causation standard requires only that the railroad’s negligence played “any part, even the slightest” in producing the death — a dramatically lower threshold than ordinary negligence. Even if the truck’s presence on the tracks was the primary cause, any negligence by Union Pacific in crossing design, signal timing, sight lines, or train speed can support recovery. The FELA statute of limitations is three years from the date of the incident.
Can the family also sue the trucking company?
Yes — and this is the critical point that the railroad may not volunteer. The claim against Union Pacific under FELA and the claim against the trucking company under ordinary negligence are entirely separate. A commercial vehicle stopped on active railroad tracks for a full minute is direct evidence of negligence and a violation of federal grade-crossing regulations. The trucking company, its driver, and potentially the cargo-securement entity are all independent defendants with their own insurance coverage. The family can pursue both claims simultaneously.
What if the railroad says workers’ compensation or railroad death benefits are the only option?
That is not accurate for railroad employees. Railroad workers are excluded from standard workers’ compensation and are instead covered by FELA, which provides full tort damages — not a benefit schedule. Railroad death benefits may exist alongside FELA, but they do not replace it. Any suggestion that a capped benefit is the family’s only remedy should be reviewed by an independent attorney before any document is signed.
The NTSB is investigating. Does that help or hurt a civil case?
The NTSB investigation is helpful because it forces evidence into existence — data recorder analysis, witness interviews, scene measurements, and signal-system testing. However, the NTSB’s final probable-cause findings are inadmissible in civil litigation under 49 U.S.C. § 1154(b). The strategy is to obtain the factual data from the NTSB docket — the raw measurements, the recorder downloads, the witness statements — and build independent expert analysis on top of that factual foundation. The NTSB says the truck was on the tracks for about a minute. That is a fact. What caused that minute-long stoppage is what the civil case must prove.
People in the building were injured but the police said the injuries were minor. Is there still a claim?
Yes. Building occupants injured by heavy equipment that was propelled into their workplace have claims against the trucking company, the cargo-securement entity, and potentially the railroad. “Minor” is a word used by a police chief at a press conference — it is not a medical diagnosis. Soft-tissue injuries, concussions, and post-traumatic stress can develop over days. The key is medical documentation: see a doctor, follow every referral, and keep every record. The medical record created in the first weeks is what prevents the defense from later arguing the injuries were not caused by the collision.
How long does the family have to file a claim?
In Texas, the statute of limitations for wrongful death and personal injury is two years from the date of the incident — December 18, 2024. For FELA claims, the federal deadline is three years from the date of the incident. These are hard deadlines. Missing them ends the case regardless of how strong it is. But the evidence that decides the case — the crossing signal logs, the ELD data, the dash camera footage, the downtown CCTV — dies far faster than the statute of limitations. The preservation letter must go out in days, not months.
What if the trucking company says the driver was an independent contractor?
The trucking company will likely argue that the driver was an independent contractor, not an employee — and therefore the carrier is not responsible for the driver’s actions. This is the most common defense in commercial-vehicle cases. Federal leasing regulations at 49 CFR 376.12(c)(1) provide that when a carrier leases on a driver and equipment, the carrier has exclusive possession, control, and use of the equipment for the duration of the lease and assumes complete responsibility for operation of the equipment. The carrier’s own logo on the trailer, its dispatch system, its routing instructions, and its safety policies are all evidence of control. The “independent contractor” label is a starting position, not the end of the story.
How much is a case like this worth?
The case-value range for this collision, based on the dual-track architecture, is approximately $3 million to $25 million. The low end assumes shared liability and standard insurance limits. The high end assumes clear trucking negligence, gross-negligence findings supporting punitive damages, substantial carrier insurance limits, and concurrent FELA liability against Union Pacific. Two railroad-employee wrongful deaths carry significant per-claim value given likely strong earning capacity and FELA’s favorable standard. Building-occupant injuries, described as minor, contribute modestly. The actual number will be built from the evidence, the medical records, the economist’s projections, and the life-care plan. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
What does it cost to hire a lawyer for a train-truck collision case?
We work on contingency. That means we do not get paid unless we win your case. The fee is 33.33 percent of the recovery before trial and 40 percent if the case goes to trial. The consultation is free. The preservation letters are sent at no upfront cost. We advance the cost of investigation, expert witnesses, and discovery. You pay nothing out of pocket — we are paid from the recovery, and only if there is one.
Why Attorney911
Ralph Manginello has spent 27-plus years in courtrooms, including federal court. He is admitted to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas. He was a journalist before he was a lawyer, which means he learned early that the story is in the details — the exact regulation that was broken, the exact record that was not kept, the exact minute the truck sat on the tracks. He is the managing partner of our firm and leads the active $10 million hazing lawsuit against Pi Kappa Phi and the University of Houston. He does not lose cases because he did not prepare enough.
Lupe Peña is a former insurance-defense attorney. He spent years inside a national defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decided how to deny, delay, and devalue people exactly like the families reading this page. He knows how claims are valued, how reserves are set, how IME doctors are selected, how surveillance is deployed, and how delay tactics work. He now uses that knowledge for injured clients. He is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter.
We handle personal injury, commercial and construction litigation, wrongful death, trucking, and 18-wheeler crash cases. The firm has recovered $50 million-plus in aggregate, including a $5 million-plus brain-injury settlement, a $3.8 million-plus amputation settlement, and a $2.5 million-plus truck-crash recovery. Our approach to a train-truck collision in the Permian Basin is built on what we know about oilfield commercial truck accidents in West Texas, what we know about 18-wheeler crashes, and what we know about wrongful death claims under Texas law. You can learn more about Ralph Manginello and Lupe Peña on their respective pages.
We serve Texas from offices in Houston and Austin, and we handle commercial-vehicle and wrongful-death cases across the state — including Reeves County and the Permian Basin. The call is free. The consultation is confidential. We do not get paid unless we win your case.
If your family is grieving a Union Pacific employee killed in Pecos, or if you were inside the Chamber of Commerce building when the collision happened, call us at 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911). We are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You will speak to a live person, not an answering service.
Hablamos Español.
This page is legal information, not legal advice. Every case is different. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. Contacting the firm is free and confidential.