DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Fifteen people were injured when a Brightline train hit a fire truck in downtown Delray Beach today (Dec. 28, 2024), splitting the ladder truck into two parts.
The collision occurred about 10:45 a.m. near East Atlantic and Railroad avenues in the South Florida community; Atlantic Avenue is the main thoroughfare through downtown, lined by restaurants and shopping. Three firefighters from the Delray Beach Fire Rescue truck have been hospitalized and are in stable condition, the City of Delray Beach said in a press release. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue assisted in the incident and transported 12 people from the train to the hospital with minor injuries.
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel, in a paywalled article, reports that Delray Beach Fire Rescue Chief Ronald Martin said two of the firefighters were transported as trauma alerts in serious condition. They are now stable but will “likely have prolonged admission at the hospital,” Martin said.
Passengers on the train were evacuated onto a new train shortly after 12:30 p.m., the newspaper reports.
Delray Beach police, the National Transportation Safety Board, and Brightline officials are investigating, the city said.
As of 4:30 p.m. CT, Brightline’s website indicates at least two trains have been cancelled this afternoon, with others showing delays of up to four hours. As of 7:45 p.m. CT, the company shows delays on upcoming southbound departures from Orlando and West Palm Beach. The company has posted video on X.com from the train’s forward-facing camera showing the moments before the collision with a message urging drivers to “never drive around crossing gates when they are down.”
— Updated at 8 p.m. CT with new information, including Brightline posting of on-train video.
Tragic collision between a fire truck and the brightline in Delray Beach. Apparently the firemen were responding to a car collision. Always sad how car culture and vehicular violence can cause compounding tragedy. pic.twitter.com/k4WKiImVZR
— Ethan Kent (@ebkent) December 28, 2024
Speed kills. Regulations should have never allowed Brightline to operate trains at such high speeds in such a dense urban corridor. All at-grade crossings should at a minimum have all 4 quadrants covered by gates to be operating those Brightline trains at those speeds.
Given the traffic density, grade separation is advisable, albeit expensive. This is hardly the only poor design or the worst that FDOT have allowed.
The crossing gates and flashers appear to be operating correctly and the NTSB will likely find that the Delray Beach Fire Rescue crew deliberately ignored the warnings to their, and Brightline’s, detriment. It is not uncommon for first responders to have a sense of self-importance that allows them to flout regulations that the rest of us are expected to observe.
Dan, it’s not a sense of self importance. They are literally responding to an emergency. They’ll take risks to help other people. That’s the opposite of “self importance”.
Sorry, Allen, but I’ve worked and volunteered with our fire, rescue, scuba, and emergency management teams al of my life and have seen the self-importance of which I write. And there is a world of difference between risking one’s own safety in the service of others and risking a catastrophe.
The truck went around the gates as they were down on both sides. The fire truck driver stopped/slowed down to go around the other gate so as to not break it off.
He/She clearly did not see the Brightline train coming at all. They saw the EOT on the south bound freight and they went for it. I would surmise the co-worker in the right hand seat blocked the view of the oncoming train. The partner should have been calling out “all clear” or “not clear”, but was probably looking at the gate and oncoming cars.
Innocent until proven guilty, but that video is pretty self explanatory. They drove around the gates. In my opinion, (pending the investigation results) the City of Delray Beach owes a bundle.
Governments in the U.S. have absolute Sovereign Immunity. The City of Delray Beach won’t owe a dime.
That’s true as a principle, and goes back to the British monarchy – You can’t sue the king, whose rights are divine. However, numerous federal, state, and local statutes waive sovereign immunity in specific instances. I have no idea what the Florida statutes will reveal.
I believe I recorded this accurately from the CBS Evening News: “The Fire Chief says that it’s unclear. The guard rails were down and maybe the train tried to go around the guard rails. In Florida, trains have the right of way, even when passing emergency vehicles.”
The media depend on interns paid ninety cents an hour. The interns report to a copy editor who works from home, meaning that he checks his e-mail once each morning and afternoon.
Reporters and editors on duty on Sundays are too often known for not being the best at their jobs.
George: It will interesting to hear/read how the fire chief walks that statement back, not to mention how he declares that his drivers all understand what lowered crossing gates mean. Thank God no one died but I’m certain the Brightline engineer won’t shake the memory of the big red truck in his path.
Remember not too long ago when the Amtrak Crescent hit a fire truck at an unguarded crossing near Catlett, VA?
Read that the fire truck waited for a FEC freight then went ahead. Gates may have went up and then started down again. An old but deadly trap that will eventually come up in the investigations.
The sheet metal has been pushed back all the way to the front of the cab. Never seen that before in any of the previous wrecks. Also, damage to the coach body. As terrible as this is having the vehicle maintenance facility is a HUGE plus over trying to fix all this at the original running repair facility.
Have we forgotten the Detroit fire engine parked on the main and hit by Amtrak?
I remembered that one immediately when I saw the picture.
Maybe I am misinterpreting the photo, but it seems these are four-quadrant gates. How did they get through?
A First Responder ignores the crossing gates???????????????
Makes you wonder, don’t it? These guys should know better.