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More than a dozen people were left injured after a Florida fire truck’s attempt to cross train tracks ended in disaster caught on video.



(Video: WPTV)

With investigations underway by the Delray Beach Police Department and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), witnesses had more questions about why a fire engine had attempted the dangerous crossing Saturday. This was especially true as the dramatic footage released by Brightline revealed that the Delray Beach Fire Rescue aerial fire engine had endeavored to navigate around the lowered safety gates.

“Railroad safety is a community wide effort,” stated Brightline as it released footage of the seconds leading up to the crash that sent three firefighters and 12 passengers to the hospital. “For everyone’s safety, never drive around crossing gates when they are down.”

A press release from the City of Delray Beach detailed that, “Three Delray Beach firefighters were transported to a local hospital, where they remain in stable condition. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue provided assistance, transporting 12 individuals from the train to the hospital with minor injuries.

“I’ve worked on the Ave for ten years and this is the third incident I’ve witnessed,” Jordan Kotellos, a bar back at a local establishment told the Tampa Bay Times.

“Why have train tracks in one of the busiest spots in Delray?” he asked having recounted a woman who got her heel stuck and a pedestrian fatality.

Local resident Alek Dunn had told WPTV, “I was on a call with a friend of mine and the next thing you know I heard the crash. I saw the train deploy its emergency brakes and slow down.”

“I don’t know how a vehicle was on the train tracks and especially a fire truck,” resident Kevin Keller told the outlet.

While there was a service call around the time of the collision, it remained unclear if the fire engine was responding to that and Delray Beach Fire Chief Ronald Martin told the press, “At this point all that information is being investigated through a multi-agency, multi-partner investigative process.”

What was known was that, having only begun operation in July 2017, Brightline was detailed by the Times as having the worst death rate in the nation with more than 100 people fatally struck since the company’s beginning.

It had been noted that “most of those deaths have been either suicides, pedestrians who tried to run across the tracks ahead of the train or drivers who went around crossing gates instead of waiting for a train to pass.”

“Brightline hasn’t been found to be at fault in those previous deaths,” reported the Times as the NTSB had two investigations underway involving Brightline crashes that resulted in three deaths on the route between Miami and Orlando earlier in the year.

Kevin Haggerty
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