Prepare collides with fireplace truck in Florida; police say 3 firefighters, 12 passengers harm Delray Seashore (US), Dec 29 (AP) A high-speed passenger prepare collided with a hearth truck at a crossing Saturday morning in Florida, injuring three firefighters and at the very least a dozen prepare passengers, authorities mentioned.
The crash occurred at 10:45 am in crowded downtown Delray Seashore, a number of information retailers reported. The Brightline prepare was stopped on the tracks, its entrance destroyed, a couple of block away from the Delray Seashore Hearth Rescue truck, its ladder ripped off and strewn within the grass a number of yards away, The Solar-Sentinel reported.
The Delray Seashore Hearth Rescue mentioned in a social media put up that three Delray Seashore firefighters have been in secure situation at a hospital. Palm Seashore County Hearth Rescue took 12 individuals from the prepare to the hospital with minor accidents.
Emmanuel Amaral rushed to the scene on his golf cart after listening to a loud crash and screeching prepare brakes from the place he was having breakfast a few blocks away. He noticed firefighters climbing out of the window of their broken truck and pulling injured colleagues away from the tracks. Considered one of their helmets got here to relaxation a number of hundred toes away from the crash.
“The entrance of that prepare is totally smashed, and there was even a number of the elements to the fireplace truck caught within the entrance of the prepare, nevertheless it break up the automotive proper in half. It break up the fireplace truck proper in half, and the particles was all over the place,” Amaral mentioned. Brightline officers didn’t instantly touch upon the crash.
A spokesperson for the Nationwide Transportation Security Board mentioned it was nonetheless gathering details about the crash and had not determined but whether or not it’ll examine.
The NTSB is already investigating two crashes involving Brightline’s high-speed trains that killed three individuals early this yr on the identical crossing alongside the railroad’s route between Miami and Orlando.
Greater than 100 individuals have died after being hit by trains since Brightline started operations in July 2017 — giving the railroad the worst demise price within the nation. However most of these deaths have been both suicides, pedestrians who tried to run throughout the tracks forward of a prepare or drivers who went round crossing gates as an alternative of ready for a prepare to move. Brightline has not been discovered to be at fault in these earlier deaths.
Railroad security has been a priority since a Norfolk Southern prepare derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023, spilling poisonous chemical substances that caught fireplace. Regulators urged the trade to enhance security and members of Congress proposed a bundle of reforms, however railroads haven’t made many main modifications to their operations and the invoice has stalled.
Earlier this month the 2 operators of a Union Pacific prepare have been killed after it collided with a semitrailer truck that was blocking a crossing within the small West Texas city of Pecos. Three different individuals have been injured, and the native Chamber of Commerce constructing was broken.
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