(The following report appeared at Action3news.com on November 27.)
HAYLAND, Neb. — An Action Three News investigation has uncovered accusations that families of those hurt or killed by Union Pacific trains are routinely strong-armed by the railroad.
Union Pacific is accused of pressuring people into quick financial settlements, getting far less than they deserve.
Take the case of John Nielsen:
Five years ago on a lonely set of tracks just outside Hastings, Nebraska the engineer on a Union Pacific train got the shock of his life. “I don’t hear it or see it, basically it knocked me down, pulled the rug out from underneath me.”
Today John Nielsen, of North Platte, gets around, but gets around slowly, “I’m not what you call a cripple cripple.”
No, but ever since the train he was on was rammed by another train, Nielsen hasn’t been the same. With her husband suffering from nerve damage and ruptured discs in his back, it hurt his wife, Michelle, to watch. “I’d never seen him in pain like that before.” And according to Nielsen the crash ended his career as an engineer.
But the accident is only half the story, the other half found Nielsen in a fight with a company he worked for 30 years, a fight he never expected. Nielsen says about a month after the accident he and his wife met with a woman from the Union Pacific’s claims department.
Nielsen says at first the couple liked what they heard, but only at first. “She says I’m here for you, I have your best interests in hand, anything I can do for you. And then it was an about face statement, ‘but if you talk to an attorney I’m done with you.”
Michelle Nielsen tells Action Three News, “We were even just scared to even pick up a phone and dial an attorney to see what our rights were.” Asked if she took the woman’s comment as a threat Michelle says, ‘Yea I would say so, I would say so.”
Nielsen says he felt manipulated and intimidated. He also says his wages were cut off. He eventually hired a lawyer, and sued Union Pacific.
Late last year the two sides agreed to a confidential out of court settlement.
And other court cases are in the works:
Following three car-train wrecks in Arkansas where people were hurt or killed another lawsuit was filed against Union Pacific. It accuses the railroad of widespread “fraud…misrepresentation, and unconscionable deception.”
In addition the victims claim the railroad “benefits financially” and has saved millions by telling some 300 other victims, that they “should not get an attorney, that it would cost the victims more.” The railroad is also accused of cozying up to victims, going so far as to contact people in emergency rooms while their loved ones were being treated just a few feet away.
The Arkansas case is still pending.
Union Pacific refuses to talk to Action Three News on camera, but issued a statement denying each and every accusation.