Passenger Trains > Railroad crossing stunt that led to a lawsuit - Q&A

I wanted to ask my fellow rail enthusiasts about a topic that I find interesting and ridiculous at the same time regarding railroad crossing equipment. Back in Fall 2018, there was a teenage girl from Orem, Utah who got injured because of a broken train crossing gate and it was actually her fault. This girl and her best friend who were juniors in HS at the time did TikTok videos all the time doing vlogs, challenges, truth or dares, etc…….the type of entertainment that lots of teens record on TikTok. The thing is, one of the things they filmed themselves doing on TikTok was challenges and dares (kissing random guys on the street, snowboarding in a bikini, bowling with pumpkins, throwing fake cinder blocks at cars, etc……) and one day, they decided to do a “railroad crossing challenge” for entertainment where the girls would film each other wrapping their arms around a crossing gate while it was down, then when the gates go back up, hang onto the gate while it’s going up. They wanted to turn it into a new thrill ride, but it was a bad idea.

One of the girls (Katie Sigmond) actually tried it at a Union Pacific-owned crossing in Orem where they waited for a train and when it passed by, she grabbed onto the gate. The thing is, when the gate she was holding onto began to go back up, she actually got pulled off the ground as intended, but the crossing mechanism struggled to bring the gate up because of how heavy she was compared to the gate - and by the time the gate was halfway up, the middle of the gate snapped in half, causing her to fall straight down and badly injure herself on the road. Katie cracked her head open and suffered a broken collarbone because of that stunt she tried, and she needed to have emergency surgery to repair those injury. The absurd part is that after her hospitalization, Katie’s family filed a lawsuit, not against UP, but Western-Cullen Hayes, Inc. - the company that makes the railroad crossing equipment. As it is, the reason she fell is because train crossing gates are made of fiber glass - a material that’s easy to break. If you drive your car through a lowered gate, it will snap the gate right off the signal pole that’s holding it up.

To Katie’s family, they felt that WC-Hayes should have built the crossing gates with a different kind of material that can’t be snapped in half that easily since train crossing gates exist for the purpose of protecting drivers and pedestrians from trains and were seeking money for her medical expenses. WC-Hayes considered this to be a frivolous argument, claiming that train crossing gates are not a toy and the railroad does not install those gates so that people can ride on them like ferris wheels, so she shouldn’t have touched it to begin with, and they are purposely made of fiber glass for a reason (the crossing signal mechanism would not be strong enough to raise a gate that’s made of steel) and Katie was heavier than the crossing gate. The family lost and did not receive any money from this, but I want to ask everyone: What is your opinion about all this? How absurd do think it was for her family to sue to railroad supply company considering that the injury would have never happened if she hadn’t touched the gate?? Also, since the crossing equipment is railroad property, couldn't UP come after Katie for breaking that crossing gate?

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Hope she got some sense knocked into her head.

Is it feeding time for the trolls already?!
Yum.
SR

Another case where everything that happens is somebody else's fault, an attitude that is supported by the personal injury attorneys out there. It seems people refuse to take responsibility for their own stupidity. I'm glad the family lost this ridiculous lawsuit and hopefully they were forced to pay legal costs to the defendant.

The first link, about 8 feet of a crossing gate is aluminum tube that is quite strong, the sections after that are fiberglass and not very strong. If she hung onto that it would not have broken.  Personal injury attorneys are often looking for a quick payout from these frivilous cases assuming it would never go to trial, as in the defendent will paying out because it is cheaper than fighting it.  In this case it sounded like the plaintiff did not pay and carried the suit forward.  Do you have a link to the decision or media coverage of the incident?

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

I think the parents should be spayed and neutered so that they don't produce any more offspring. That family's gene pool needs to end right there.

Another example of how lack of frontal lobe development often results in injury or worse to teens.

B & O Bill

Everyone is talking about the family- I smell a plaintiffs attorney who thought they could get a quick settlement and payday.  Glad the plaintiffs attorney got stiffed on their portion of any reward, and hopefully the court forced the plaintiffs to pay the defense costs for the frivolous suit.

Unfortunately, I don’t. I completely forgot what platform I read it on and it was a while ago

Posted from iPhone

               No idea if they came after the Union Pacific but if they had, these days it is almost a great bet the railroad would pay off just to keep from being viewed as a 'bad neighbor'. The best thing to do ( and years ago to have stopped this ) is to NOT knuckle under and force the people who hurt themselves to take responsibility

The fact that they like to make Tik Tok vids tells me all I need to know.  Glad W-C Hayes fought the suit and won.

-John

coleallen Wrote:
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"To Katie’s family, they felt that WC-Hayes
should have built the crossing gates with a
different kind of material....."
I doubt it was her family that thought that. More likely it was the attorney who saw dollar signs and convinced the family to ride along so him/her could make a few bucks.

"Have you been injured in an accident?"

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff"

I think they should have sued Amtrak

If they were serving coach passengers in the diner this girl would have done a tik tok video on how many people actually eat $25 cheeseburgers

Since they weren’t serving coach passengers they had to resort using crossing gates as stripper poles

Posted from iPhone

My question is what would she have done if the gate didn't break and she was stuck up in the air, and tried to slide down and was injured by something on the gate. I don't think she would have won that one either.
Dimwits. When I was a cop I saw what can happen to folks who do that kind of idiotic stuff.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I hope Katie's family had to pay for WC's attorney fees.

Carex Wrote:
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> I hope Katie's family had to pay for WC's attorney
> fees.

...and the gate and maintainer call.

TAW

Was this on a Front-Runner commuter rail line?  I'm trying to understand what this has to do with Passenger Trains, as opposed to Western Railroads.

Carex Wrote:
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> I hope Katie's family had to pay for WC's attorney
> fees.


This

Posted from Android

webmaster Wrote:
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> Do you have a link to the decision or media coverage of the incident?

I could not find a reference to this gate incident, but I did find several references to Mrs Sigmond being fined last year for hitting a golf ball into the Grand Canyon. She was charged $285 of what could have been a $5k maximum time.

Look up Katie Sigmond on YouTube - she has pulled a list of stunts for views on TikTok

This for instance:
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmTheMainCharacter/comments/y9negl/when_you_are_desperate_for_views/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/23 17:08 by coleallen.