BNSF Caught In Spy vs. Spy With Fatal Accident Evidence
April 22nd, 2009 Posted in News, Prototype 
The families of four train-car accident victims say Burlington Northern Santa Fe manipulated trial evidence.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe destroyed, withheld, misplaced or manufactured railroad records last year during a trial involving four young adults killed in a horrific 2003 train-car accident, the victims’ families contended on April 20, 2009 in a Washington County (MN) District Court.
Each of the families was awarded $6 million (USD) in June by an Anoka County (MN) District Court jury that rejected earlier suggestions that the victims had tried to beat a train to the crossing. But lawyers for the victims’ families said they should be compensated for unnecessary expenses they incurred.
Attorneys for the victims’ families are argued that data downloaded into a computer by a BNSF official within two hours of the Sept. 26, 2003, accident at the Ferry Street crossing were downloaded in violation of BNSF company rules, according to court documents. The disc was then hidden, misplaced or destroyed within a week of the accident, according to court documents.
Railroad records were suppressed, track permits were altered and BNSF, claiming the track condition was not a factor in the victims’ death, failed to produce pertinent videos for the trial, the families allege in court documents.
“A lot of this was kept from the jury for obvious reasons,” said Mark Bradford, the Minneapolis, MN attorney who represents the family of Brian L. Frazier, 20, of Newport, who owned the car and was likely driving the vehicle when it was hit by a westbound train traveling at 60 miles per hour.
Also killed in the crash were Bridgette M. Shannon, 17, of Ramsey; Corey E. Chase, 20, of Coon Rapids, and Harry Rhoades, 20, of Blaine.
“Records were destroyed, withheld from us for years, or manipulated, to put it softly, to create various kinds of delays,” Bradford said. “The accident happened in September 2003, but last June, nearly five years later, Burlington Northern still was not forthcoming with evidence.”
Representatives of Burlington Northern Santa Fe contended that the jury erred in reaching its verdict last year. A BNSF spokesman said that lawyers for the railroad were expected to tell the court that the victims tried to drive around a crossing gate that was working. The victims’ families said the gates weren’t working properly. The families began questioning BNSF’s submissions of evidence long before last June’s verdict.
Judge Ellen Maas presided over the trial in June, but has since moved from Anoka to Washington County. The April 20, 2009 hearing was moved to Washington County with her.
You Be The Judge!
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17 Responses to “BNSF Caught In Spy vs. Spy With Fatal Accident Evidence”
By Mike on Apr 22, 2009
STOP FOR TRAINS. That would have prevented this. You run the crossing, you’re the fool. Sorry they were killed, but they did that to themselves, trains don’t swerve into people, that’s why they have rails. I think the RR should be suing them if anything. Some dumbass jury will side with the family however. Stop for the train, plain and simple.
By mike on Apr 22, 2009
you survived the crash? were you driving?
amazing.
By Mike on Apr 22, 2009
The numbers of people who don’t look, listen or learn, about trains and crossing accidents shows why “stupid” people yearly get killed at crossings by ignoring the signs.
I saw one video where a truck got caught by a lowering sign, and then instead of backing up drove thru and then got hit. What is not shown though is that it looks like the driver had a clear sight to the trains. So why drivers don’t look first??
But they all will claim it’s the railroads fault. (Thats because they have money!)
Well I say Stupidity should hurt!
By Scott on Apr 24, 2009
If the RR is never wrong why do they download the engines and nit pick the engineer and conductor to death over you didnt blow the crossing that .100th of a second so this is your fault, You set to much air at this spot thus this is your fault for allowing three extra cars to get accross the crossing and one of them gets hit. You get a mile worth of warnings for road construction and you get 3ft of warning for RR crossings so Im with the Family on this one.
By jadebullet on Apr 24, 2009
Unless the locomotive jumped the tracks, and went Christine on their car before returning to the tracks, the argument of a coverup is null, and void. I have seen asshats slolem(sp?) around the crossing gates, or in one case, charge right through them.(He left his convertible top behind.
The fault is still with the idiots who raced the train. Why don’t people think of the train crew on this one? They have the trauma of killing those people. Some of them never forget that, and blame themselves even though it wasn’t their fault.
By Brian on Apr 29, 2009
First, let me say that, for anyone to judge the deceased, the jury, or even the railroad in this case (or any case) without knowing the facts of the case is WRONG! Unless you have been privy to the evidence and facts of this case, anything you have to say is not worthy of saying. Having been involved with the case since the beginning, I can say without a doubt that the railroad withheld, destroyed and altered evidence in this case. The real question should be, if the railroad had nothing to hide, then why didn’t they turn over all the downloads and evidence to defend it’s innocence? Instead, they ignored requests for such information from the police, investigators, etc. and banked on the fact that everyone would believe that these four kids were either intoxicated or simply careless which the evidence proved beyond a reasonable doubt was not the case. And, if you’re familiar with this particular crossing, you’d know that the visibility either way was obstructed by trees and shrubs which, in itself, made this a dangerous crossing. Of course, don’t feel the need to take a field trip now to go see it because after many close calls at that crossing and ultimately, the loss of four young lives, the roadroad finally altered the crossing to make it more safe – or so they say. Stay tuned – as this will likely make a bigger news venue in the future. Corruption should not be tolerated.
By Kitten on May 4, 2009
We all know that large corporations will lie, cheat, steal and do anything to keep their all mighty dollar….why would anyone think that they didn’t do what has been stated. They hide the evidence and are lying.
By Melissa on Jun 12, 2009
Gee, Mike (with a capital “M”), you’re about an inconsiderate piece of work, aren’t you? If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that you worked for the railroad company.
Well, I’ve got news for you, not everybody that is killed by trains are at fault, or are “stupid” people, as you would say. Unless you were in the court room listening to all of the evidence, I suggest you leave you “stupid” comments to yourself. Oh, and another thing, you heartless S.O.B., what if it had been one of your family members, or God forbid, one of your children, I bet you wouldn’t say, “Stupidity should hurt!” Know the facts and know what you are talking about before you say something so ignorant.
By Stacie on Jun 16, 2009
I only have a couple comment 1.NO MATTER WHAT YOU SHOULD ALWAYS LOOK AT A CROSSING TO MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS NO TRAIN COMING BOTTEM LINE. 2. EVEN IF THE GATES ARE NOT WORING OR WORKING !!!!!!! And yes for any one thats wnats to no I come from a RR family… those kids did not stop and look for a train and now there dead well thats what happens so mike i could not agree with you more…
By GM on Jun 29, 2009
If YOU are on the tracks…and get hit…it is YOUR fault. Problem is…nobody is accountable these days. I have been riding trains for 30 years. Yesterday we almost hit a car load of people, crossing around the gates. We see it multiple times EVERY trip. If you get killed or hurt…shame on you, but YOU did it to yourself. (I do feel terribly sorry for the families–but basically, the driver of the car killed them.
By RGoodell on Jun 29, 2009
GM: Agree 100%
By ron on Jul 10, 2009
Bridgette was my cheerful and delightful loving niece, and I dont care what your thoughts are about who was at fault, but people should be more respectful and considerate to the victims and their families when they make their comments, god bless you all and be careful when crossing these faulty train crossings,they are not as safe as they should be.
By Jake on Oct 1, 2009
This was a tragic event that was somewhat personal to me because I traveled Ferry Street daily to commute to work. During the time period preceeding the crash, twice I witnessed local law enforcement directing traffic through the crossing because of a crossing gate failure. What is not detectable in the picture is the elevation change at the crossing; the rails are level from East to West, but slightly banked and Ferry St. is rising as you head north. This actually is a benefit to both directions of travel as you can see coming trains from under the crossing arms. Trains are very audible at this crossing and they did and still do sound their horns at this crossing. The only sight disadvantage is to the siding of the tracks just east of the intersection, as sometimes there are stopped trains or sitting railcars which can obscure your vision, but any motorist who makes an effort to listen for a coming train can and should hear it. My personal opinion is that whether the driver purposely attempted to go around crossing gates or that the gates failed, had he bothered to listen and look for a train, he would have detected one. Although I believe the responsibility of the accident falls to the driver, there were multiple victims in this circumstance, four of whom lost their lives, and countless friends and family members who lost loved ones, not to mention the engineer of the train. We all were young drivers once, and we should all know that people make mistakes whether they fail to yield to caution or purposely display a disregard for safety, sometimes those mistakes can be fatal. It really doesn’t matter whose fault any accident is when it comes to life or death, we should learn from this that our safety is our own responsibility. I am a rail fan and take note of anything related to trains, and I have witnessed many other gate failures on the same set of tracks further down the line, but usually I have seen the railroad workers attending to most of them. There isn’t a set of tracks that I cross without making an attempt to detect a train, even if that means having to completely stop to look, it’s my life and I’m not going to trust someone else with it.
By Jake on Oct 1, 2009
Another thing I forgot to mention about the crossing is that in the days after the crash, the makeshift memorial which was placed at the scene became so cumbersome that it had to be taken down by authorities. There were so many pictures, flowers, cards, etc attached to the crossing gate, that it was a distraction and undermined the crossing arm because it nearly disappeared under the memorial. I don’t know why it has become popular to place accident scene memorials everywhere, but sometimes they get to be burdensome to the area in which they are placed. Some states do not allow these memorials for vehicle related accidents because of the safety issue, rather the state will place an appropriate marker, one that is not a major distraction. It would be nice to see Minnesota adopt such a policy.
It is funny to think that someone has to be hurt before something becomes an issue, that we as a society choose not to be proactive when it is inconvenient. This particular crossing wasn’t anymore dangerous than the next until someone was hurt; and in all reality, the crossing I live a mile away from has more limited visibility than this crossing did at the time of the crash. Hwy 47 is elevated above the salvage yard on the northwest corner of the picture, and the road declines abruptly on the south side. I think the speed limit in the area is 30 mph, what you do not see in the picture is that just to the north, is a sharp bend where the road actually faces near west and to the south there are businesses and intersections with lights, downtown Anoka begins just a couple of blocks south of the picture. North of the picture, after MN Hwy 47 turns west it again turns north (To go around the Anoka County fair grounds) and most of the road for another mile north has few intersections, there isn’t another light until about a mile north. It is easy to see how a 20 year old with three friends in his vehicle had his mind on other things than the train. How often do we really look for cars at intersections unless the light is red, how easy was it for this kid to miss the train because the signal wasn’t flashing, assuming it failed. Most of us usually aren’t paying that much attention at regular road intersections when the light is green for us, but should a car run their red light, man are we shocked that we were hit and then we turn to anger as we look for someone to blame. Could we not have paid attention and scanned for cars at the intersection despite our right of way? How many more accidents would be avoided if we took responsibility for our safety? We wouldn’t have a need for courts or prisons if everyone took responsibility for their own actions…a kid yielding at an intersection, the railroad making sure all of their equipment is in tip-top shape.
By Todd Arnold on Oct 2, 2009
To Mike, and all the others who have no idea what the hell they are talking about:
I have lived within spitting distance of that intersection where they died for 47 years. There have been numerous accidents there in the past, and several people killed.
THE WARNING GATES MALFUNCTION ON A REGULAR BASIS. I have been there in the middle of the night when the gates come down for no reason- no trains, no one working on them. Now they have added rail service to this line, which was already one of the busiest routes in the state.
The railroad advertised for witnesses and PAID them to come forward and testify against these kids. Look it up, first time it was allowed in this country. Something is wrong here.
Todd Arnold
By DPS on Oct 14, 2009
Jake-you make some very good points. As a driver I believe we should all be more aware of our surroundings when driving however, I also know that when I have a green light at an intersection I expect the red light for on coming traffic. Whether I am watching for cars coming another direction or not, if the on coming traffic light is also green there is a problem with the lights and if there is a death involved BECAUSE of that, then there should be some legal proceedings following that. Someone should be held accountable when our safety is put in jepordy.
With the intersection at the Ferry st. crossing, as a driver i EXPECT the arms to work and to let me know when a train is coming and if you had seen all the evidence at the trial you would believe also that the arms did NOT come down to warn these kids of an oncoming train. Imagine being a 17-20 yr old, 4 kids in the car, talking, laughing radio going, having a good time…kids are not taught to stop and look when it is an armed intersection, they are taught to trust the arms are working.So, if we are going to blame anyone (other than the RR for having non-working equipment)lets blame the drivers ed class that should be teaching our kids how to behave at this type of intersection. I too have always enjoyed observing trains, but I can tell you that any large corp. is going to try to get out of any wrong doing if they can afford to do so. Do a search on BNSF and look at some of the things they have done in the past and present, they are far from angelic.
Todd – good going!
As for those that think there was a 6+week trial and the jury found in favor of the families out of pity, you are sadly mistaken. In the beginning they ask if the jury would award $$ in a wrongful death and the funny thing is that each and every one of them said NO, they saw only a portion of what took place in the 5 yrs from the time of the accident, if they saw all of it some RR people would be in jail right now.
By skyshine on Nov 29, 2009
I cannot believe how cold some of you people are, Have a little compassion for the families that lost their children in this wreck, do you really think that they are looking to get rich by this incident? you dumb asses, these families would give it all back to have their children back, SHAME ON YOU.And if you read the evidence the crossing bars were not working properly, had they had been these kids would be alive today.and why would the railroad immediately hide evidence? use your heads and read it all before blaming a bunch of kids, for the railroads wrong doing