14 replies to this topic

[CNJRoss]

Fatalities and trespassing continue to plague Brightline express rail

 

Miami Herald 

 

Read more: https://www.miamiher...om/news/busi...

 

Since 2017 up until early 2022, Brightline has been involved in 46 fatalities along its tracks. Since the restart of the service after a pandemic break, elected officials and regulators are now gearing up to address the problem.

 

Video by Al Diaz and Rob Wile / Miami Herald

 

 

[KevinKorell]

Miami New Times, 1/28/22:

 

    Death Train: A Timeline of Brightline Fatalities in South Florida UPDATED  

 

 

Within a few hours of returning to South Florida last November, after a 20-month hiatus during the pandemic, Brightline was already off to a rough start.

 

Story

[CNJRoss]

Associated Press, 2/16/22

 

Florida high-speed rail deaths rise to 57 in 5 years

 

 

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Brightline trains killed one person and seriously injured another in separate accidents less than 12 hours apart, the latest in a spate of collisions plaguing the higher-speed passenger trains since the railroad recently resumed operations.

 

Tuesday night’s death was the ninth involving Florida’s privately owned passenger railroad since it resumed operations in November after an 18-month shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the 57th since Brightline began test runs in 2017, giving it the worst per-mile fatality rate in the nation, according to an ongoing Associated Press analysis that began in 2019.

 

Investigators found none of the deaths were the railroad’s fault,  . . .

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[CNJRoss]

Trains News Wire

 

FRA calls meeting on South Florida grade-crossing, pedestrian safety

 

February 21, 2022

 

Wednesday session follows series of Brightline accidents

 

 

WASHINGTON — The Federal Railroad Administration will hold a meeting this week with South Florida rail operators, as well as government and law-enforcement officials, to discuss safety efforts in the wake of ongoing fatal accidents involving Brightline passenger service.

 

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports Brightline, Amtrak, CSX, and commuter agency Tri-Rail will be part of the meeting in Boynton Beach, Fla., along with local officials, to assess the efforts to deter accidents involving pedestrians and drivers at grade crossings.

 

 

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[CNJRoss]

Sun Sentinel, Deerfield Beach, FL  2/20/22

 

As Brightline struggles with deadly accidents, what will future hold for South Florida rail expansion?

 

 

While Brightline is regarded by some as an emerging gold standard for higher speed train travel and a magnet for upscale development in South Florida, the line also has become a grim barometer for what the public and policy makers probably never envisioned: an alarming number of deaths and injuries at railroad crossings and along tracks.

 

Before it resumed service last November after a long COVID-induced hiatus, Brightline spent millions to upgrade its safety systems and launch a public awareness campaign. To say the results have been disappointing is an understatement.

 

SNIP

 

The Federal Railroad Administration, which oversees safety regulations around the country, has taken notice. It has summoned the operators of Brightline, Tri-Rail, Amtrak, and CSX, whose north-south line runs along the west side of I-95, to a meeting in Boynton Beach next Wednesday to assess what communities and others are doing to deter accidents involving trespassers on tracks and motorists at crossings. Local elected officials and law enforcement authorities are also on the invitation list.

More here.

[CNJRoss]

Brightline email excerpt, 2/24/22

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Members of the FRA, FDOT, FHWA, and local authorities met yesterday to collaborate on safety in our communities.

 

 

Safety is our top priority, and on Wednesday, we were pleased to attend the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) Safety Town Hall in Palm Beach County. Brightline, along with the other passenger railroads and freight railroads were all in attendance along with local officials.

 

This safety workshop was extremely important to us as we know it takes community cooperation to combat the number of rail incidents, and the FRA called for the community to come together to help solve the problem.

 

Brightline continues to prioritize safety and implore community members to stay off the tracks. We’re continuing to take steps to increase awareness around railroad safety by implementing law enforcement outreach, deploying safety ambassadors to high-trafficked crossings, and installing VMS signs at rotating crossings. 

 

Additionally, we’ve created and distributed tri-lingual materials and rail safety pledges, run thousands of PSAs on radio and TV, and invested millions of dollars in safety improvements such as red-light cameras as well as cutting-edge rail crossing safety technology. Our red-light cameras alone have issued more than 860 violations since November 2021, helping to improve rail safety in the communities we serve. 

 

Click here to read important safety tips from our partner, Operation Lifesaver, a national nonprofit focused on reducing grade crossing incidents and promoting rail safety.

 

 

[CNJRoss]

Railway Age, 3/13/22

 

Keeping Vehicles and People Off Brightline Tracks

 

 

The recent spate of accidents involving humans and vehicles on Brightline’s tracks between West Palm Beach and Miami between November 2021 and February 2022 highlights two of the biggest obstacles facing Brightline’s success as a scheduled, reliable passenger railroad: The effectiveness of the dozens of grade crossing warning systems, and the easy, unimpeded accessibility of the tracks to large numbers of the population.

 

To expand on the first point, the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) designated Brightline as a “closed corridor” despite highway-rail grade crossings on 180 miles of track. In contrast, Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor has zero crossings between New York City and Washington D.C. (275 miles) and only 12 between NYC and Boston (250 miles). Could Brightline install four-quadrant gate systems with advanced technology like vehicle detection that are more effective than the minimum FRA standards? Of course—but it’s costly. 

 

To expand on the second point, Brightline’s right-of-way is a product of history: The route opened up the settlement of Florida, and residences, schools and commercial and business enterprises naturally were built close to the tracks. Until recently, there have been about a dozen daily 45-mph Florida East Coast Railway freight consists as the only user of the line, divided about equally southbound and northbound and during the day vs. night. Accidents involving humans were the highest in the country, but publicly tolerated. Many were suicides. 

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[steve4031]

The only solution is to threaten to tax the populations of these cities to pay to eliminate all grade crossings.  Or find another means to pay for eliminating grade crossings.  

[CNJRoss]

Deerfield News, Deerfield Beach, FL  3/16/22

 

Fifty Nine Have Died By Trying To Beat Brightline

 

 

Deerfield-News.com-Deerfield Beach,Fl-In just five years Brightline trains have collided with 59 people who in most cases tried to beat the train. Some of the other deaths were by suicide. The high-speed rail started in 2017 with service in Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. The latest death came in Hollywood this week. Not one of the deaths has been attributed to the train, in each case it was a driver trying to go around the guard rails, a driver trying to beat the gate, or a suicide.

 

Brightline has the worst fatality rate in the nation, according to an ongoing Associated Press analysis of Federal Railroad Administration data that began in 2019.

 

Its trains have fatally struck 59 people since beginning test runs in 2017, an average of about one death every 33,000 miles. Central Florida’s SunRail has the second-worst rate among railroads that operate at least 100,000 miles annually – its trains have fatally struck someone every 105,000 miles since 2017.  . . .

 

 

Continue here.  

[KevinKorell]

Same as the post in #2 above, except that the Miami New Times has updated it again as of 3/16/22.