15 harm in Florida when practice hits fireplace truck on tracks

By Josh Funk and Julie Walker | Related Press

Three firefighters and a dozen passengers had been injured in Florida on Saturday when a hearth truck with its lights flashing drove round rail crossing arms and into the trail of a high-speed passenger practice after ready for one more practice to cross, in line with video of the incident and an individual briefed on what occurred.

The crash occurred at 10:45 a.m. in crowded downtown Delray Seaside. Within the aftermath the Brightline practice was stopped on the tracks, its entrance destroyed, a few block away from the Delray Seaside Fireplace Rescue truck. Its ladder was ripped off and within the grass a number of yards away, The Solar-Sentinel reported.

The Delray Seaside Fireplace Rescue stated in a social media publish that three Delray Seaside firefighters had been in steady situation at a hospital. Palm Seaside County Fireplace Rescue took 12 folks from the practice to the hospital with minor accidents.

The individual aware of the main points of the crash, who was not licensed to reveal what occurred due to the continuing investigation and spoke on situation of anonymity, stated the fireplace truck stopped on the crossing and waited for a freight practice to go by earlier than maneuvering across the lowered crossing arms.

Video of the collision exhibits the fireplace truck driving round vehicles stopped on the crossing with its lights flashing to cross the double tracks.

Emmanuel Amaral rushed to the scene on his golf cart after listening to a loud crash and screeching practice brakes from the place he was having breakfast a few blocks away. He noticed firefighters climbing out of the entrance window of their broken truck and pulling injured colleagues away from the tracks. One among their helmets got here to relaxation a number of hundred ft away from the crash.

“The front of that train is completely smashed, and there was even some of the parts to the fire truck stuck in the front of the train, but it split the car right in half. It split the fire truck right in half, and the debris was everywhere,” Amaral stated.

A Brightline security officer stated the whole group is concerned in guaranteeing railroad security and drivers ought to by no means go round closed gates.

The Federal Railroad Administration will examine. A spokesperson for the Nationwide Transportation Security Board stated within the afternoon that it was nonetheless gathering details about the crash and had not determined but whether or not to research.

The NTSB is already investigating two crashes involving Brightline’s high-speed trains that killed three folks early this 12 months on the similar crossing in Melbourne alongside the railroad’s route between Miami and Orlando.

Greater than 100 folks have died after being hit by trains since Brightline started operations in July 2017 — giving the railroad the worst dying price within the nation. However most of these deaths have been both suicides, pedestrians who tried to run throughout the tracks forward of a practice or drivers who went round crossing gates as an alternative of ready for a practice to cross. Brightline has not been discovered to be at fault in these earlier deaths.

Railroad security has been a priority since a Norfolk Southern practice derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, spilling poisonous chemical substances that caught fireplace. Regulators urged the trade to enhance security and members of Congress proposed a bundle of reforms, however railroads haven’t made many main adjustments to their operations and the invoice has stalled.

Earlier this month the 2 operators of a Union Pacific practice had been killed after it collided with a semitrailer truck that was blocking a crossing within the small West Texas city of Pecos. Three different folks had been injured, and the native Chamber of Commerce constructing was broken.

Related Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, Chevel Johnson in New Orleans and Julie Walker in New York contributed.