Fire Truck Hit by Train in Florida, 15 People Injured in Collision

On Saturday morning at 10:45 a.m., a serious collision occurred in downtown Delray Beach, Florida, leaving three firefighters and twelve passengers injured. The incident involved a fire truck with its lights flashing, which drove around the rail crossing arms and directly into the path of an approaching high-speed Brightline passenger train. The fire truck had been waiting for another train to pass before it attempted to cross the tracks.

According to video footage and a source briefed on the situation, the crash occurred in a crowded area of downtown. Following the collision, the Brightline train came to a stop about a block away from the Delray Beach Fire Rescue truck. The front of the train was severely damaged in the crash. Meanwhile, the fire truck’s ladder was torn off and found several yards away in the grass.

The Delray Beach Fire Rescue confirmed in a social media post that three of their firefighters were transported to a hospital, but they were in stable condition. In addition, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue reported that twelve passengers from the train sustained minor injuries and were also taken to the hospital for treatment.

A source familiar with the details of the crash, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing investigation, revealed that the fire truck initially stopped at the rail crossing and waited for a freight train to pass. After the freight train had cleared the crossing, the fire truck attempted to maneuver around the lowered crossing arms, which led directly into the path of the high-speed Brightline passenger train. The individual was not authorized to disclose further information at this stage of the investigation.

Video footage of the collision shows the fire truck driving around cars that were already stopped at the rail crossing, with its emergency lights flashing as it crossed the double tracks.

Emmanuel Amaral, who was having breakfast just a couple of blocks away, immediately rushed to the scene on his golf cart after hearing the loud crash and the screeching brakes of the train. When he arrived, he witnessed firefighters climbing out of the front window of their damaged truck and pulling their injured colleagues away from the tracks. One of the fire truck’s helmets was found several hundred feet away from the crash site.

Amaral described the scene in vivid detail: “The front of that train is completely smashed, and there were even parts of the fire truck stuck in the front of the train. It completely split the car in half. It split the fire truck right in half, and debris was scattered everywhere.”

A Brightline safety officer emphasized that ensuring railroad safety is a shared responsibility within the community and stressed that drivers should never attempt to go around closed gates at rail crossings. The Federal Railroad Administration has announced it will investigate the incident. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stated that the agency was still gathering information about the crash and had not yet decided whether to open an official investigation.

The NTSB is already conducting investigations into two separate incidents earlier this year involving Brightline’s high-speed trains, which resulted in the deaths of three people at the same crossing in Melbourne. This location is part of the railroad’s route between Miami and Orlando.

Since Brightline began operations in July 2017, more than 100 fatalities have occurred as a result of people being struck by its trains, making it the railroad with the highest death rate in the country. However, the majority of these deaths have involved suicides, pedestrians attempting to cross the tracks in front of a train, or drivers circumventing closed crossing gates. Brightline has not been found responsible for any of these deaths.

Railroad safety has become a more prominent issue following the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, which caused a hazardous chemical spill and subsequent fire. In response, regulators urged the railroad industry to adopt stricter safety measures, and lawmakers introduced a package of proposed reforms. However, progress on the bill has stalled, and railroads have made few significant changes to their operations since the incident.

Earlier this month, a tragic accident occurred in the small West Texas town of Pecos, when a Union Pacific train collided with a semitrailer truck that had been blocking a railroad crossing. The crash resulted in the deaths of the two train operators. In addition to the fatalities, three other individuals were injured in the incident. The local Chamber of Commerce building also sustained significant damage as a result of the collision.

This incident adds to the growing concerns over railroad safety across the country.

The story was reported by Associated Press writers Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, Chevel Johnson in New Orleans, and Julie Walker in New York.