The family of an Elgin man killed by a freight train while removing snow from a Naperville train station platform last year has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Metra.
Henrrich Alvarez De-La Sancha, 46, was clearing snow from the eastbound passenger platform at the downtown Naperville Metra station on Dec. 1, 2025, when an eastbound freight train struck his snowplow. The collision left Alvarez De-La Sancha with multiple injuries, resulting in his death.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County circuit court, alleges that Metra failed to follow Federal Railroad Administration regulations that would have helped ensure safe working conditions.
It also alleges negligence on the part of Metra, including claims that the agency “did not provide sufficient warning of the freight train” and “did not sufficiently train or supervise sub-servants and/or subcontractors,” including Alvarez De-La Sancha.
Alvarez De-La Sancha worked for Beverly Snow and Ice Inc. and had been employed by the business for “three or four years,” according to Ben Crane, an attorney representing the family.
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The suit charges Metra improperly outsourced snow removal work to Beverly Snow and Ice. According to the filing, Metra assigned all snow and ice removal to BNSF, which outsourced the work to the city of Naperville. The city, in turn, hired Beverly Snow and Ice.
“(Metra) can assign it out, but they have to do it appropriately,” Crane said. “They can’t just say, ‘You guys do this and wash (their) hands of it.’ They need to make sure that these guys are following the rules, following the federal regulations regarding on track and roadway worker protection.”
He also said he believes that if Metra or BNSF had assigned their own workers to the job, they would have treated the situation differently as they would have had union workers who could have more easily spoken out about the safety conditions.
The family also intends to amend the claim to include BNSF Railway as a defendant, Crane said. A spokesperson for BNSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Metra declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Alvarez De-La Sancha is survived by his wife Josefa Cruz Dominguez and their two children, Heidi and Henry Alvarez. He supported his family through his wages. Following his death, the family has faced substantial financial loss and “suffered severe mental pain and anguish,” according to the suit.
The case was filed by Sherlin Cruz, the independent administrator of his estate.
“The plaintiff in the case is his wife’s daughter from a prior relationship, and he raised her from a very young age as his own daughter,” Crane said. “He was a total family man.”
The family is seeking more than $50,000 in damages through the lawsuit. Crane said that while there was not a more exact amount of money the family was seeking at this time, he noted that in cases like these, “we’re seeking millions and millions of dollars.”
“When families send their fathers and husbands off to work like this, they expect the people that they’re working for to do their job, and that wasn’t done here,” he said. “These people, when they go to work, they have a right to a reasonably safe workplace, and the fact that they’re not enforcing the rules that have been in place for years is a slap in the face for families like this.”
This is not the first time a snowplow driver had been struck by a train at a Metra stop. In January, a 64-year-old Bartlett Public Works employee was killed when the snowplow he was operating was struck by a Metra train at the Bartlett commuter station, according to a Daily Herald article.
Metra has also previously been sued over collisions involving its trains. Earlier this year, the Metra Board of Directors approved $43 million in settlements for victims of a February 2020 collision involving a Metra train, a car and a teenage pedestrian, who died as a result of the crash.
The collision took place at a crossing at 87th Street and Pulaski Road in Chicago when, according to court records, a Metra train struck a car, which then struck a pedestrian.
That incident — and subsequent multimillion-dollar payout — follows a 2015 crash at the same intersection that resulted in the deaths of two people and the injury of four others. Metra settled that case in 2022 for $12.25 million.