DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (WSVN) – A Brightline passenger shared an account of the harrowing moment authorities say a train collided with a fire truck in Delray Beach, sending more than a dozen people to the hospital. The weekend selloff continues.
Zack Thrasher said in an interview with 7News on Sunday that he had no idea the train had hit something as big as the Delray Beach Fire Rescue truck Saturday morning.
“We felt the brakes slam and immediately felt a huge impact. I was thrown into the table. There was a lot of force.” “We knew we had accomplished something, and we knew we had accomplished something important. At first we thought it was a car. We had no idea. ”
The truck appears to have crossed the tracks on Southeast First Street while the barrier was down and a high-speed train was rapidly approaching.
“I know the crossed arms were down. Even after the fact, I could tell they were still down,” Thrasher said.
The impact was so strong that the fire truck was cut in half and the ladder was blown several meters away.
According to police, 15 people, including 12 passengers, were hospitalized.
“People on board the Brightline train suffered minor injuries and three firefighters were transported to local hospitals with injuries,” Delray Beach Police Sgt. Matt Saraceni of the department’s Traffic Homicide Unit.
The accident has sparked multiple investigations into who is at fault.
“I think the fire trucks believed the freight train was the only train. They tried to cross, but they didn’t see us and basically hit us,” Thrasher said.
In Sunday morning’s X-Post, a Brightline spokesperson responded to comments that the train should have stopped, writing:
“Because the trains are so fast, it takes nearly a mile from the time the brakes start to the time they come to a stop, especially when considering passenger safety.”
Brightline service appeared to be back to normal Sunday as it spent much of Saturday slowly removing trucks from the tracks.
The accident remains under investigation by the Delray Beach Police Department, Brightline, and the National Transportation Safety Board.
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