Brightline investigation by Miami Herald and WLRN wins another national award

The national Society for Professional Journalists has bestowed top honors to a team of Miami Herald and WLRN journalists for their investigation into Brightline’s staggering fatality record.

The team won for non-deadline reporting in the society’s Sigma Delta Chi Awards, with judges calling the project “one of the most dramatically and graphically told stories we’ve read in a long time” and noting how its exhaustive reporting “translated into compelling stories that matter.”

The “Killer Train” investigation revealed that Brightline — a privately operated, higher-speed train promoted as a model for the future of American rail — has become the deadliest major passenger train in the United States. Since 2017, more than 200 people have been killed by Brightline trains. That’s an average of one death every 13 days of service.

Soon after the first story in the series was published, the U.S. Department of Transportation released $42 million in federal money to improve safety along the tracks.

The team behind the project included Miami Herald journalists Brittany Wallman, Aaron Leibowitz, Allison Beck, Matias J. Ocner and Susan Merriam, and WLRN reporters Daniel Rivero and Joshua Ceballos.

The Brightline team was also recently named a finalist for the Sunshine State Awards’ A-Mark Prize for Investigative Journalism. The winner will be announced Aug. 29 in Fort Lauderdale.

These are the latest accolades for the project, which also garnered top honors from the Esserman Journalism Awards and Investigative Reporters and Editors. In May, “Killer Train” was recognized by the Pulitzer Prizes as a finalist in local reporting.

This story was originally published July 11, 2026 at 4:40 AM.