A St. Louis mother is taking a railroad and the Missouri Department of Transportation to court after her 35-year-old daughter, Ashley Hogan, was killed when a train struck her car on Dec. 24, 2024, at the intersection of James S. McDonnell Boulevard and Banshee Road in north Berkeley. The newly filed lawsuit targets both public and private players that the family says should have kept the crossing safer.
According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the suit was filed in St. Louis County this week by Hogan’s mother and names the railroad company that operates the line along with MoDOT as defendants. The paper reports that the filing comes in the wake of the Christmas Eve collision that killed Hogan at the north Berkeley crossing and seeks damages tied to her death, arguing that the safety protections in place at the site were not enough.
Back in December 2024, local readers first learned details of the crash when emergency crews responded to the scene, found Hogan in the vehicle and pronounced her dead at the crossing. That early account identified the James S. McDonnell Boulevard and Banshee Road location in north Berkeley and noted that local investigators had opened an inquiry, as laid out in an earlier report on the fatal crash.
Claims Target Crossing Safety And Oversight
The complaint, as summarized by the Post-Dispatch, accuses the railroad of negligence in how the crossing was maintained and faults MoDOT for not requiring or completing upgrades that had reportedly been recommended for the site. If the case moves forward, it will head into discovery, the often slow and document-heavy phase where lawyers trade records and take depositions while they gauge whether the dispute is headed for a settlement or a trial. The Post-Dispatch notes that, at the time of its reporting, representatives for both the railroad and MoDOT had not publicly commented on the filing.
Why Now And A Wider Safety Context
Federal records list the James S. McDonnell Boulevard crossing in the Federal Railroad Administration’s public crossing database, a detail that tends to matter when questions arise about warning systems, maintenance obligations and who ultimately bears legal responsibility. Across Missouri, courtroom fights over so-called passive crossings, locations that lack gates or other active warning devices, have unfolded before. One high-profile example was the 2022 Amtrak derailment in Chariton County, which drew attention to safety upgrades that had been recommended but not finished at that rural crossing, according to prior local reporting. Incidents like that often turn state funding decisions, railroad ownership and engineering choices into central issues once lawsuits start flying.
For now, the Hogan lawsuit sits on the docket in St. Louis County. As new filings come in and court dates are set, the case record will grow in the public file, and Hoodline plans to follow those developments through local court records as the matter moves ahead.
