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Video shows shocking moment high-speed train collides with a Florida fire truck that drove onto tracks

From the Brightline Safety and Security Team: Railroad safety is a community wide effort. For everyoneâs safety, never drive around crossing gates when they are down. https://x.com/GoBrightline/status/1873169846613012782 Three firefighters and a dozen passengers were injured in Florida on Saturday when a fire truck with its lights flashing drove around rail crossing arms and into the path of a high-speed passenger train after waiting for another train to pass, according to video of the incident and a person briefed on what happened. The crash happened at 10:45 a.m. in crowded downtown Delray Beach. In the aftermath the Brightline train was stopped on the tracks, its front destroyed, about a block away from the Delray Beach Fire Rescue truck. Its ladder was ripped off and in the grass several yards away, The Sun-Sentinel reported. The Delray Beach Fire Rescue said in a social media post that three Delray Beach firefighters were in stable condition at a hospital. Palm Beach County Fire Rescue took 12 people from the train to the hospital with minor injuries.

Video released by Brightline shows the view from the front of one of its trains as it raced down tracks in Delray Beach on Saturday — just for a fire truck to still slowly cross the tracks.

The truck appears to come to a virtual stop on the crossing, with the footage cutting out as the train slammed into it — almost completely tearing it apart, photos show

Images showed the train completely smashed up at the front as it came to a stop about a block after the crash.

The three injured firefighters were in stable condition in the hospital and the dozen hurt passengers were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, according to the Palm Beach County Fire Rescue.

“Railroad safety is a community wide effort,” the rail company said alongside the footage, which showed the fire truck had passed a guardrail.

“For everyone’s safety, never drive around crossing gates when they are down.”

The fire truck had stopped at the crossing and waited for a freight train to go by before maneuvering around the lowered crossing arms, one person familiar with the incident said.

A passenger of the Brightline train described the sudden impact of the crash.

“We felt a hard brake and then an immediate violent impact. I was thrown into the table. Yeah, there was a lot of momentum,” Zach Thrasher, an Orlando resident, told CBS 12.

The Federal Railroad Administration will investigate the incident.

A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said they were still in the preliminary phases of gathering information about the crash and had not decided whether they would be investigating.

Brightline is an intercity high-speed train service between Miami and Orlando, according to its website.

The NTSB is already investigating two crashes involving Brightline’s high-speed trains that killed three people early this year at the same crossing in Melbourne along the railroad’s route between Miami and Orlando.

Brightline is an intercity high-speed train service between Miami and Orlando, according to its website.

with Post wires

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