Missouri Jury Awards $12.5M to Injured Railroad Worker

An eastern Missouri jury has awarded $12.5 million to a railroad worker who blamed his former company for a train accident that cost him his right leg below the knee.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the Jefferson County jury unanimously sided Tuesday with 51-year-old Michael Bolen of Jackson.

Bolen sustained the injury in May 2012, when he says he tripped over a boulder in a BNSF Railway yard in Crystal City while directing trains and fell onto the tracks. That’s where a slow-moving train ran over his legs.

BNSF spokesman Andy Williams says that while it sympathizes with Bolen’s injury, the Fort Worth, Texas-based company questions Bolen’s version and doesn’t believe its workplace or equipment contributed to what happened.

Williams isn’t saying whether the company will appeal.