Family claims Union Pacific liable for death

The family of a Bunkie man who died after an ambulance’s path to the hospital was blocked for over four hours by a stopped train has filed suit against Union Pacific Railroad, alleging wrongful death in the matter.

The family of Leo Horace Blalock said he suffered a medical emergency on June 27. His wife, Brenda Blalock, called 911. Units from Acadian Ambulance and Bunkie police and fire departments responded. The ambulance was taking Blalock to the nearest hospital, Bunkie General, when it was discovered that the railroad crossings in Bunkie were blocked by a Union Pacific train.

Police and fire department officials attempted to have the railroad company move the train or make a break to allow the ambulance to get through to the hospital, the suit claims.

REFUSED TO MOVE TRAIN

The suit states that the Union Pacific dispatcher told the city officials “that the train employees were resting and refused to move the train and/or make a break in the train to allow Leo Horace Blalock to obtain emergency medical treatment.”

Railroad employees on the site were told there was a man requiring emergency medical treatment, but they also refused to move the train or make a break to allow the ambulance to pass through.

The suit says the employees and dispatcher “were well aware that a man’s life was in danger and knowingly and intentionally refused to move and/or make a break in the train to allow passage to Bunkie General Hospital.”

Due to that refusal, the decision was made to airlift Blalock to Rapides Regional Medical Center. This required the ambulance to travel outside the city limits to a sugarcane loading site where a helicopter could land.

As a result of this delay, Blalock did not “receive timely life-saving emergency treatment when his life depended on every second,” the suit alleges. “The callous indifference of Union Pacific Railroad Company caused and/or contributed to the untimely death of Leo Horace Blalock.”

The suit states Union Pacific is responsible for damages to the family due to several acts of negligence. Those alleged acts include blocking all railroad crossings in Bunkie for four hours and 15 minutes, failing to recognize the need for an individual in an ambulance to get to a hospital for emergency medical treatment, and “callous indifference to the suffering of another human being by failing to move the train and/or make a break which would allow passage to obtain critical emergency medical treatment.”

The family members seek compensation for loss of love and affection; loss of consortium, service and society; loss of enjoyment of life; mental anguish; past, present and future financial support; lost wages and funeral expenses.

{Editor’s Note: This article reports on the filing of a lawsuit. A lawsuit includes only the allegations of one party against another. It does not give both sides of a case and is not proof that the allegations made are correct and true. The truth of the allegations will be determined by a judge and/or jury.}