A train blocking a railroad crossing in Noble was blamed for a death that triggered a lawsuit against Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.
Linda Byrd filed a lawsuit in Cleveland County District Court on Oct. 27, 2021, accusing BNSF of negligence in the death of her husband 11 months earlier.
The police department in Noble was notified at 8:38 p.m. on Sept. 5, 2020, that the railroad tracks intersecting Maple Street had been blocked for half an hour by a Burlington Northern Santa Fe train. A police officer contacted BNSF “and advised them of the issue.”
Around 9:33 p.m. the NPD received a call from another person who claimed to have been waiting at those same tracks for approximately an hour and a half, unable to cross because of a train blocking the crossing. The NPD contacted BNSF again “and again advised them of the issue.”
Approximately 15 minutes later the Noble police were contacted by a third person complaining he had been waiting to cross the railroad tracks for more than two hours. Police again notified BNSF of the problem.
About 1:15 a.m. on Sept. 6, 2020, the Noble P.D. received a 9-1-1 call requesting medical assistance for Larry Eugene Byrd, 66, “who was having chest pains and was losing consciousness but still breathing.”
CPR was performed by family members “and continued until EMS personnel were able to arrive on scene.”
Meanwhile, police officers and emergency medical service personnel were dispatched to the Byrd home. But the only route to that address “was by crossing over the Maple Street crossing, which was fully blocked by a stopped BNSF train…”
Noble police and EMS personnel said they spoke directly to a BNSF conductor, who allegedly refused to move the train, “closed the locomotive’s window and would not respond to any further questions…”
Finally, at approximately 1:30 a.m. – 10 minutes after BNSF “was first notified of an emergency medical situation” at the Byrd residence half a mile south of the tracks on Front Street, the train “finally moved forward and cleared the tracks.”
Noble Fire Department emergency medical service technicians began defibrillation efforts “but by then it had been 17 minutes since Mr. Byrd had experienced his cardiac event” and it was too late to resuscitate him.
Mrs. Byrd filed a wrongful death lawsuit against BNSF, its division trainmaster and the BNSF road foreman of engines, along with the train’s conductor and the engineer “who was operating the train that blocked EMS access” to the Byrd home.
BNSF attempted to get the case removed to Oklahoma’s Western District federal court, but U.S. District Judge Stephen Friot denied the motion and sent the case back to Cleveland County on Sept. 22, 2022.
No activity has occurred in the case since that date, the Oklahoma State Courts Network indicates.