(The following story by Mandy Moran Froemming appeared on the Coon Rapids Herald website on June 16.)
COON RAPIDS, Minn. — The families of four young people killed in 2003 when their car collided with a freight train got the verdict they were hoping for Friday when an Anoka County District Court jury ruled the accident was not the victims’ fault.
The Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) was found to be 90 percent responsible for the deaths of Bridgette M. Shannon, 17, of Ramsey; Corey E. Chase, 20, of Coon Rapids; Brian L. Frazier, 20, of Newport; and Harry J. Rhoades Jr., 19, of Blaine.
The eight-person jury returned a verdict totaling $24 million in compensation – $6 million for each of the crash victims’ families.
The four young people were killed nearly five years ago when the Chevy Cavalier they were driving southbound in the 2700 block of Ferry Street in Anoka was struck by the train.
Chase, Frazier and Rhoades were all graduates of Blaine High School. At the time of the accident Shannon was an Anoka High School senior.
While it was initially thought the driver swerved around the crossing arms at the intersection to beat the train, the families of the victims’ were convinced the crossing arms were not working properly and BNSF had failed to properly maintain the equipment.
The jury agreed after a six-week trial before Anoka County District Court Judge Ellen Maas. The plaintiff’s case was led by attorney Bob Potroff of Manhattan, Kan.
“The families were ecstatic that all of these children were exculpated of any responsibility (for the accident),” said attorney Paul Godlewski, of the firm Schwebel Goetz and Sieben, representing the family of victim Chase.
The jury’s decision not only sent a message to the victims’ families but to law enforcement as well about proper protocol after an accident at a railroad crossing, he said.
“Law enforcement personnel need to be trained (on handling) things that happen at a railroad grade crossing,” said Godlewski.
BNSF should not have entered the bungalow (the metal shed where the electronic equipment at the crossing is housed) without law enforcement present after the accident, he said. A copy of data was downloaded to a CD and given to a claims agent and not the police, according to Godlewski.
Burlington-Northern Santa Fe Railroad maintains that it was not at fault for the accident.
“BNSF believes that the great weight of the evidence demonstrates that BNSF acted properly and that the occupants went around the gates and warning devices at this grade crossing,” said a statement released by the railroad company.
“BNSF is disappointed with the verdict and while we have deep sympathy for the families of the victims of this tragic event, we believe the verdict should be reversed on appeal.”
Family reaction
Beth Chase, whose son Corey was killed in the crash, attended every day of the six-week trial.
“It was important for me to be there every day,” said Chase, who lives in Coon Rapids.
It was Tuesday, June 10 at 11 p.m. when she learned the jury had found the railroad 90 percent at fault for the accident.
“The vindication that the jury listened to the evidence and found the truth was so important,” said Chase.
If the railroad had properly maintained the crossing her son and three others would still be here today, she said.
The railroad had argued Corey had been driving the car, which was owned by Brian Frazier, at the time of the accident. Chase did not believe it.
“It my gut instinct – I knew he wasn’t,” said Chase. “It was the strongest thing in my heart.”
Testimony from the coroner later proved, based on the victims’ injuries, that Frazier had been driving.
She said she talked to Corey every day of the trial.
“I told him we were fighting for him,” Chase said.
The accident unexpectedly connected her with a group of strangers – the families of the four victims, she said.
“It’s a miserable thing to lose somebody,” Chase said. “In one way I wished I never would have met them but now that I have come to know them, we have become a family.”
Chase has developed a strong friendship with Denise Shannon, whose daughter Bridgette was also killed in the accident.
“We’ve been able to talk to each other, hug each other and cry with each other,” she said.
At the time of the accident, Chase said taking care of her other two children ages 11 and 16 at the time, kept her going.
And for the Chase family Corey’s memory is kept alive in his daughter Taylor, now 10 years old.
“Taylor really is our blessing,” she said. “I look into her eyes and see Corey looking back at me.”
Credible data
Godlewski said the discrepancies between the data printout and the downloaded information obtained through a court-order from the BNSF’s h-drive, the home computer, “was not only different but so different it couldn’t have come from the same processor.”
More than 40 people had access to this information and testimony later confirmed the information on the printout had been changed, he said.
The only eyewitness to the accident was the train’s conductor, who testified he saw the Cavalier swerve around the crossing arms to beat the train.
According to the 2003 story in the Anoka County Union, Anoka Police were dispatched to the scene of the accident at 10:12 p.m. Sept. 26 after a report came in from the conductor of the train reporting the collision.
It was later determined the Cavalier was traveling south along Ferry Street when it was struck by the train.
Accident reconstruction was done by the Minnesota State Highway Patrol.
While the railroad argued the driver, which was proved during the trial to be Frazier (the registered owner of the car), tried to swerve around the crossing arms, Godlewski said the evidence based on the position of the car and its location in the southbound lane proved that was impossible.
BNSF’s failure to provide authentic data proved the four young people were victims of failed mechanics at the crossing, he said.
The trial also included testimony from a woman who called 911 after she was nearly hit by a train at the same intersection when the crossing arms failed to activate just six months before the deadly accident that killed Shannon, Chase, Frazier and Rhoades.
Godlewski said there was no documentation the railroad had investigated the incident.
“Burlington-Northern did not follow their own rules,” he said.
Post-trial sanction hearings against the railroad with Judge Maas are expected later this summer, according to Godlewski.