A jury recently awarded $30.1 million to a sanitation worker who suffered severe injuries when his truck was struck by a Union Pacific Railroad train. In January 1998, Charles Rolf was crossing Union Pacific railroad tracks on a county road outside of Goodwin, Arkansas when a train hit the back of his garbage truck. Rolf suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs, a fractured skull and vertebrae damage.

Rolf filed suit against Union Pacific and the train engineer alleging that the railroad company was negligent for failing to properly maintain the tracks. Plaintiff attorneys alleged abundant shrubbery around the crossing impaired a driver's ability to see an oncoming train.