A 31-year-old Costa Mesa man was killed after his BMW was hit by a freight train in Riverside, according to a news report.
Riverside police said that Christopher Lee Pantoja Sampayan died at the scene, although police were able to pull him from his BMW before it burst into flames. The Riverside County Coroner’s Office first reported that Sampayan had intentionally positioned his car on the tracks, but Riverside police said the accident is still under investigation.
Authorities said they were alerted to the accident by the BMW’s onboard reporting system, which sent an alert to a monitoring company that the airbags in the car had deployed. When the monitoring service was unable to reach the driver, the police were notified. When police arrived, they found the BMW embedded in the front of a BNSF train.
If you or a loved one is involved in an accident that causes death or serious injury, call Callahan & Blaine, California’s Premier Litigation Firm. We are one of the leading catastrophic injury firms in the state of California. In fact, in the last five years alone our lawyers have obtained over $1.2 billion in verdicts and settlements, including a record breaking $50 Million settlement against the City of Dana Point, which has been certified as the largest personal injury settlement in the history of the United States. Callahan & Blaine has also recently obtained a $28 Million settlement for a driver who was hit by a runaway truck wheel on the freeway, a $7 million settlement for a bicyclist who was struck by a newspaper delivery truck, and a $7.25 million settlement for a man who was run over trying to board a city bus.
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If you or someone you know has suffered a catastrophic injury or died as the result of a train accident, please contact our California law firm for expert legal counsel.