On first day back in service, Brightline train hits car in Pompano Beach
On Brightline’s first day of service after a 19-month pandemic hiatus, one of its trains struck a car in South Florida on Monday morning driven by a grandmother who was with her young grandchild.
It happened around 10 a.m. in Pompano Beach in the area of Northeast Third Street and North Flagler Avenue. A woman identified as a 71-year-old grandmother was traveling east on Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard when she made a right turn and began heading southbound on the tracks, according to Sandra King, a spokeswoman for the Pompano Beach Fire Department, citing witnesses on the scene. A Brightline train, also traveling south, came along shortly thereafter, and the vehicle’s driver attempted to head off the track, but the train struck the back of the car and spun it around, King said.
The woman sustained non-life-threatening injuries, including a broken collarbone, according to the Pompano Beach Fire Department. The driver was taken to Broward Health North along with her 1-year-old granddaughter, who was alert and conscious when paramedics arrived.
A Pompano Beach spokesperson said it did not appear the rail crossing arms had malfunctioned. The express train’s service was halted in both directions for about an hour.
To promote the restoration of service, Brightline President Patrick Goddard was aboard the train, which was scheduled to arrive from West Palm Beach in Fort Lauderdale at 10:23 a.m. Video taken by Miami Herald news partner CBS4 showed a car with heavy damage near the tracks.
In March 2020, Brightline halted service and laid off its workforce as the coronavirus pandemic initially set in. It was slated to herald its reopening at a press conference Monday amid updated dining options and the launch of a new service, Brightline+, that provides door-to-door service.
Instead, Goddard told reporters at a press conference Monday afternoon that the public must heed warnings at rail crossings.
“Today, we had a tragic reminder of what can happen in spite of grade crossings operating as they should, and our team operating as it should,” he said. “This was an accident that was completely avoidable.”
In December 2019, The Associated Press reported that Brightline trains ranked as the rail service with the highest U.S. death rate on its tracks, with at least 40 fatalities. None of the deaths were caused by crew error or faulty equipment, and a majority appear to have been suicides, the AP said.
Goddard said Brightline has spent millions of dollars to reduce the death toll, including on public service announcements, signage and mechanical systems designed to prevent train-to-train collisions and derailments.
Beyond that, the solution, he said, was simply amplifying the message about taking safety at rail crossings seriously.
“Don’t try to beat the train,” he said. “That is the message.”
This story was originally published November 8, 2021 at 11:21 AM.
