MELBOURNE, Fla. — The National Transportation Safety Board will send a team to investigate after Brightline trains were involved in two fatal collisions with motorists who drove around operating crossing gates at the same grade crossing, the agency said on Saturday.
In a post on the social media site X, the NTSB said it would send the team to Melbourne “in coordination with the Melbourne Police Department.”
The driver was killed and three people were badly injured on Wednesday, Jan. 10, when an SUV attempted to beat a northbound Brightline train south of downtown Melbourne at the W.H. Jackson Street crossing south of downtown. Then, on Friday, Jan. 12, both occupants of a white pickup truck died when the driver sped around a lowered gate into the path of another Brightline train at the same crossing. That crash was caught on security-camera video, shown in a news report by Orlando TV station WESH.
Melbourne Mayor Paul Alfrey visited the scene after being informed of Friday’s crash, and said police saw the driver go around the gates.
“I need to stress to people, you have to follow traffic laws, including around trains,” Alfrey said, according to the TC Palm newspaper. “… This is about personality responsibility; you can’t be dumb.”
Where Brightline trains are authorized to travel at 110 mph on the north-south segment between West Palm Beach to Cocoa that is shared with Florida East Coast Railway freights, crossings are either equipped with quad gates that lower for all highway lanes or feature a wide divided median that prevents drivers from crossing over into the opposing lane of traffic.
If curves, bridges, or other route characteristics permit speeds no greater than 80 mph, not all crossings have quad gates or divided medians. Speeds are lower through Melbourne due to a curve south of the rebuilt Crane Creek bridge. The W.H. Jackson crossing where these accidents occurred is south of the bridge and the downtown area.
Its crossing gates protect only the traffic lanes. The crossing is about 25 miles south of where Brightline trains leave the FEC main line for the newly built line to Orlando.
A Brightline spokeswoman confirmed to Trains News Wire that trains are limited to 79 mph at the crossing and the Melbourne Police Department is handling the initial investigation.
What damage was there to the Brightline consists in these incidents? Was any equipment taken out of service?
The videos still showed the Chevy Avalanche crumpled in front of the Charger engine. The windshield was intact but the left headlight looked crushed. Until someone puts some pictures out after the police separated the Chevy from the engine, its hard to say.
I am surprised that gated crossings in 79 MPH territory do not have a median divider. Here in Wisconsin, we have a community that established a “Quiet Zone” by installing median dividers and having all crossings gated. This is on the CN mainline and was done many years ago. I don’t recall hearing about any “drive-arounds” at these crossings since then, even though the median dividers are pylons, not hard curbs.
Also, the State Highway 33 crossing in Horicon, WI on Wis. & Southern was rebuilt years ago with narrowed pavement (two lanes) fewer tracks and a hard curb lane divider. Makes it tough to drive around gates.
So perhaps it’s time for these Brightline crossings to get hard curb lane dividers.
The irony is the crossings are closed for very short periods of time when its Brightline trains [as compared to freight trains].
A RR police officer told me that the majority of people doing these types of things are generally repeat offenders.
Using that thought, these two incidents most likely isn’t these drivers first and they do it all the time with slow moving freight.
George is right, time for quad gates.
It is hard to fix stupid.
Yes, I know it’s not the railroad’s fault, but might it cost less to install more quad gates in 79mph territory vs. repairing the damage to equipment and defending against the inevitable laesuits?
How many crossings along this route can be eliminated by grade separation and/or simply closed? This is something that should have been under consideration even without Brightline in the picture.
How many grade crossing could be eliminated? Probably very very few, without tearing down cities.
Chicago suburbs are full of grade crossings with no problems … at of course lower speed on the rails.
“Chicago suburbs are full of grade crossings with no problems …”
During my career as a locomotive engineer, I experienced 6 grade crossing incidents. Three of the six were in Chicago suburbs. Admittedly, all were at speeds below 40mph and no fatalities. Not even a reportable injury. Just lucky, I guess.
I’m not sure what there is to investigate, other than the stupidity of far too many drivers.