Video via YouTube.
BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — Grade-crossing accidents just a mile apart that resulted in the deaths of two people in a week have the new Brightline passenger service in the crosshairs of elected officials and trial attorneys.
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., has asked Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to investigate. Boynton Beach officials may ask Brightline to suspend operations until safety questions are answered, the Palm Beach Post reports. And a Florida state senator has re-filed a bill that would, among other things, require railroads to pay for fencing along high-speed passenger routes under certain circumstances.
“This is a tragedy. How many more people must die before we really take a look at putting safety first when it comes to high-speed rail coming through our communities,” the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Debbie Mayfield, R-Melbourne, asked in a tweet.
Last week, a 31-year-old woman was struck and killed when she walked around lowered gates and into the path of a Brightline train, police said. In the second incident,
a 51-year-old man who rode his bicycle around lowered crossing gates was struck and killed by a Brightline train on Wednesday, police said.
Under Florida law, it is illegal for pedestrians or motorists to cross tracks when crossing gates or barriers are lowered or are being lowered or raised. Cyclists are required to follow the same laws as motorists.
But Gary Iscoe, a personal injury lawyer, posted a video on YouTube claiming Brightline would be responsible for more injuries and deaths than existing Florida East Coast, Amtrak, and Tri-Rail service in Florida.
“Now, we have the disaster of a much broader scope waiting to happen. Its name is Brightline,” Iscoe says in the video.
The lawyer did not cite any evidence to substantiate his claims and did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.
“Who are the negligent and uncaring officials who make decisions which will lead to crash after crash, resulting in injuries and deaths,” he asks in the video.
“Who among our elected officials will stand up for the safety of our citizens and demand that this dangerous train service be halted before more needless injuries and deaths occur? Who will take responsibility for these deaths and future mayhem,” Iscoe says.
Brightline and Operation Lifesaver conducted an extensive outreach program before the launch of passenger service between Miami and West Palm Beach. Brightline also upgraded every grade crossing along its route on Florida East Coast trackage.
“The safety of Brightline’s guests and on the railroad is the highest priority for our entire team,” Brightline said in a statement. “The safety systems are designed to prevent and protect people from incidents like those that occurred in recent days. Those systems functioned as intended. Our focus is on expanding our efforts to educate the community about rail safety alongside our partners at Operation Lifesaver, Tri-Rail, local law enforcement, city and county officials.”
“Our thoughts are with all those involved in the recent rail incidents in South Florida,” says Wende Corcoran, interim president of Operation Lifesaver. “Our mission is to end these preventable tragedies.”
Operation Lifesaver’s state programs and trained volunteers provide free educational presentations.
“We teach citizens that train tracks are private property – it is illegal to be on them except at a designated crossing, and going around lowered gates also is illegal — and dangerous,” Corcoran says.
Brightline and Operation Lifesaver also developed materials geared toward children and adults.
“A safety pledge card, fact sheet, in-classroom poster, tri-fold brochure and mailer were developed and produced in Spanish, Creole, and English, to meet the needs of the south Florida populace,” Brightline says on its website, where the materials are available for download.
Brightline also is working with municipalities along the Florida East Coast Railway to share rail safety information, including through utility bills, city websites and social media outlets, the passenger operator says.
Brightline began regular service between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale on Jan. 13. The privately operated passenger service eventually will extend south to
Miami as well as north to Cocoa on Florida East Coast tracks.
A new high-speed route will be built between Cocoa and Orlando International Airport.
Gary Iscoe and his ilk are obviously from another planet.
This moron asks “Who will take responsibility for these deaths and future mayhem.” Ultimately, people are responsible for their own safety and sadly, in the two reported cases, those killed brought it upon themselves.
The Rail company took it’s job seriously and upgraded every crossing on the line and it was stupidity, not the Rail Company who is at fault.
Obviously it doesn’t matter to the “Iscoes” of this world that the drivers of the trains, who were lawfully and diligently doing their duty, the Police and EMS responders and witnesses, have all been traumatized because of the stupidity of others.
Regards
J Ryk TRAEGER
AUSTRALIA.
I don’t understand the furor and outrage over this issue. What ever happened to sanity in this country, never mind “common sense”? There is now pending legislation in the Florida legislature that could possibly cripple if not end Brightline. Nowhere in the pending legislation is there even any mention of hefty fines for those who violate grade crossings and survive.
Consider two scenarios: Scenario number one. A pedestrian wanting to cross a busy highway willfully “jaywalks” against a red light and is hit and killed by a semi.
Scenario number two: A pedestrian willfully walks around lowered gates and ignores flashing lights and is hit and killed by a passenger train.
In scenario number two, the issue will be all over the news and cyberspace with politicians “demanding action”. (Don’t just stand there DO something!).
But in scenario number one? Probably won’t even make the news but if it does, it’ll most likely be on the back page somewhere. Why?
It was reported that in 2016 there were 39,000 people who lost their lives in vehicular accidents in the U.S.. 39 THOUSAND. That’s a lot of people. WHERE is the outrage?
But just let a pedestrian walk in front of train and that’s shocking. Something has to be done!
Regards,
Fred M. Cain
My hope:
A. Brightline fights this scheister, ambulance-chasing lawyer tooth and nail and does NOT settle, and
B. Sues the ‘victims’ estates for any damage done to the trains, crossing gates and other property.
When crossing gates are down there should be signs flashing, “Please, only lawyers and politicians may proceed”.
Did you ever notice that when an “attorney” makes those adjective filed statements pertaining to (injury) and (fault) or any other outrageous assertion that they are NEVER under Oath. Simply acting as an “activist” for self-promotion and remuneration(s)?
NO amount of advice will help STUPID! Some people think they are smarter than anyone else, when they are really DUMBER than most @%$@!
When I was in the Army in Vietnam the number one rule we had was “Stupidity has an inherent self correcting factor , just don’t be around that stupid person when it self corrects”. The dead people died because they both went around lowered gates with signals indicating they were down and that stupid move was corrected. As Forest Gump also said “stupid is as stupid does”. Now you have an ambulance chaser that wants to drag the railroads into court because it has to be anyone but the fools that disregard safety procedures and die to be responsible.
Suspend operations?? That’s nuts – NIMBYs, shyster lawyers and dumb politicians at work. If would-be Darwin Award recipients chose to deliberately ignore railroad safety devices, too bad if the train removes them from the gene pool. Do they put fences along every major highway so morons don’t walk into traffic?? Nope – didn’t think so!!
For whatever reasons, some people just lack common sense.
I worked in construction for many years. One occasion we were paving with asphalt a shopping center parking lot. Sawhorses were placed across the entrances to keep vehicles out. A middle aged lady, who was the city’s water company’s president’s wife pulled up to the barricade, got out of her car, moved two barricades out of the way, returned to her car and proceeded to drive across the fresh paving. On another occasion we had just finished a concrete sidewalk which we barricaded with saw horses and yellow tape. A fellow in his fifties came along. He stopped at the first barricade for a few moments, moved the barricade aside and walked through the still wet concrete for a city block. When he got to the end, he removed that barricade and continued on his journey. The only consolation for us was that the idiot ruined his shoes.
I don’t know what to make of what the victims were thinking.
My condolences go out to their survivors 100%.
OTOH here comes a long distance dedication to Mr. Iscoe and his fellow ambulance chasers…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vXZPztcGaY
What about the many multi-car/truck pileups and injuries/deaths during bad weather in the winter? Would the same politicians and lawyers demand that nobody can drive at the first hint of slickness? How well would that rule go over.
Why not just respect the crossing signals? These were the fault of the motorists and nobody else.
Lawyers…….scumbags.Two people broke the law……..it is there for a reason mr. lawyer.
When California began Capital Service many years ago they did increase the crossing signal timing for the faster passenger trains.
You will notice the ambulance chaser failed to mention that two people made a decision to ignore lowered crossing gates which is a big no-no just about everywhere. And how about the car that likely drove around the gates. A group I belong to runs an operation lifesaver program in the local schools. But what do you do with adults who won’t pay attention? Or get inpatient? Tha has been a problem since the cars started. The first fatality happened in England just days after the Rocket started steam service.
I knew this was going to happen. Just didn’t think it would happen this quickly. Just unbelievable!!!
Safety questions, how about educating idiots not to go around gates that are lowered. Senator Nelson is another “bright star” from the senate. How about Boynton Beach that wants service suspended. What a joke. Unfortunately, some of these goofy ideas may take hold. I do hope Brightline has cameras looking outward from the cab.
So 2 stupid people died because they failed to follow the rules. How do we know both of these cases weren’t “suicide by train”? And if you want to commit suicide by stepping in front of a train, wouldn’t a faster-moving train make more sense?
Harsh as it may sound, I find it very, VERY difficult to feel sympathy for people who make a personal choice to walk around a lowered barrier and into the path of a train. I can’t help but feel sorry for their survivors, but also suspect that their parents and family members never taught them the real “rules of the road”.
However, I also suspect this will all soon stop being a problem, as soon as the general public realizes that Brightline trains are moving much faster than ordinary FEC freights.
Perhaps the Mr. Iscoe can explain Brightline’s responsibility for this idiot…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-5mxRORD3M
Joseph right on with your post. The comments of the lawyer and ignorant Florida S…..Hole politicos are beyond anything I can comprehend. As a retired locomotive engineer, every grade crossing, trespasser on the right of way, the deer and birds etc. you can and do kill , never are erased. I have seen fellow brothers kill as many as 4 people in separate incidents and never really return to “normal”. The best written record I have seen is on a blog by Joe Stantuchi (sp?) a retired engineer that left me sleepless after I read It. My own worst, was just killing my best friends dog, who was like my own, and then having to drive with him to put her in a bag and take her to the vet and then tell the kids. So thank you Trains for this Newswire site that keeps us informed of what is going on in the railroading world. And please ignore the political intrusion that has no place here as well as the annoying and disruptive self appointed grammatical editorial critics who pontificate when we all know what the message is and appreciate the timely posts.
Everybody is talking about and feeling sorry for two people who excercised poor judgement and thought that
they can outrace a train and paid for it with their lives and not to mention the heartbreak and anguish that they have brought to their families by their reckless actions . Lets talk about the train operators on thiose trains and the anguish and trauma that they are going through rright now that they couldn’t stop their train in time to avoid such a tragedy. Its something that they will have to live with for he rest of their lives and seeing that flash over and over again in their minds and psyche. I dont feel sorry for those people who got killed by the train. They ignored warning signs, lights and gates You might as well attempt dashing across a ten lane highway and not tthink that you will get get ru over or mangled by speeding cars. But lets think of the grief, sadness and anguish
they inflicted on their relatives friends and families as well as the trauma and anguish put upon the train operators
because of their poor choices and reckless actions
Joseph C Markfelder
Not to poke fun at the victims or their families but do you know how many lawyer jokes there are? The answer: NONE — they are all true stories!
Just post a local police officer or a sheriff at some of the crossings for a week or two and start citing when they walk around the crossing when the gates are down. After that Brightline can use some private security to monitor it until the cameras go up.
Cameras are the solution, show video of vehicles and pedestrians trespassing when lights and gates are down and show the carnage then maybe the lawyers and family members getting the lawyers and everyone else see that there’s no case because they broke the rules or laws ALREADY IN THE BOOKS.