Union Pacific is a major U.S. freight rail operator, running long-haul networks across the central and western states and pursuing merger activity with Norfolk Southern amid regulatory scrutiny.
Rail workers have found six people dead inside a Union Pacific boxcar at a train yard in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday afternoon. Laredo police have confirmed six fatalities — five men and one woman — and have said autopsies will be done; authorities have not released identities or a cause of death. An investigation is ongoing.
Investigators have identified a potential seventh body connected to a federal smuggling case in the Laredo region. Earlier this month, six bodies were found in a shipping container on a Union Pacific train that had departed Long Beach, California. The Webb County medical examiner has ruled hyperthermia as the cause of death and authorities are pursuing updates in the investigation.
Six people have died in a sealed, unventilated shipping container at a Laredo rail yard after being smuggled on a freight train. A seventh person was left for dead along the route. The Webb County medical examiner suspects hyperthermia, and the U.S. Attorney has charged 11 defendants with conspiracy and transporting aliens resulting in death.
The Federal Railroad Administration has proposed a rule to strengthen certification standards for safe train operations. Unions welcome the move; UP and CPKC are silent as inspectors flagged English-language issues in several yards.