NTSB investigating 2 Brightline high speed train crashes that killed 3 people in Florida this week

[cteno4]

FORT LAUDERDALE Fla. (AP) — The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday it will investigate two crashes involving Florida’s Brightline train that killed three people at the same railroad crossing on the high speed train’s route between Miami and Orlando.

 

Read the full story

https://apnews.com/article/67020b2cd33b6cbcf9d85ed029d18310

 

High speed design on the brightline does not seem to be doing well with 108 deaths on the line since opening in 2017. Seems like crossing are easily dodged and just dirt stupid drivers don’t get how fast the train is coming and how stupid it is trying to beat a train. But I remember this being talked about with a lot of ground level crossings with the brightline.

 

jeff

[Oxbox]

The wording in the article does phrase it a bit like the train jumped out at the car ("when the vehicle he was driving was hit by the train"). Short of mandating grade separation for higher speed and proper high speed lines (which they should) the only think I can think of that would help would be retractable bollards but that would open a whole other can of worms and expense and won't solve impatient/selfish people being impatient/selfish. That said, it is pretty ridiculous that grade separation was not made a priority from the beginning in the upgrades of the existing lines and construction of the new lines especially with the intent for it to be higher speed and frequency than normal.

[maihama eki]

Agreed. Level crossings and high speed rail don't mix. Clearly a case of not wanting to spend the money to do it right. This is something Japan got right 70 years ago.

 

Stupid drivers don't help of course.

 

I feel for the train drivers that have to experience these incidents.

[cteno4]

Yes it’s been mainly folks going onto tracks from articles I’ve seen in the past. It’s Florida so an overpass is a high point elevation in most counties, very flat so embankment raised track sort of out of the question and I’m guessing viaduct costs would have sunk the project when not needed for elevation changes. From past stories over the last few years it’s mainly that the crossing system is not robust enough for the fast trains moving thru. Really hard to judge the speed of a train head on and folks I’m sure get messed up by the scale of a train as usually a truck is the biggest thing we deal with moving while driving. Probably throws stuff off enough for folks to stupidly think they can get around. Most of our crossings in the us are just one sided gates so idiots just zig zag around them if they want to attempt to beat the train.
 

I’ve had folks lay on their horn at me when I stop when lights go off and just as gates start to lower. They want to run the track as the gate closes. I’ve had folks come around me and do the zig across the tracks as the gates just close. Just stupid as these are at crossings where the speed of some of the commuter trains can be 50mph at times (freight on these usually much longer and slower). I’ve also had folks lay on the horn at me from behind when traffic is backed up to the crossing in front of me and I stop before the crossing. Folks want you to pull forward and wait there on the tracks, yeah right. I see this happen all the time at the local crossing with cars sitting there on the tracks and a couple times the signal went off and while some scrambled to get off the tracks others just waited for traffic to go!

 

I don’t know if the crossing gates are smart enough to know train speed or just tripped at a set distance. I could see folks thinking they have 2 minutes before the train arrives based on slow freight but very different for a 60+mph train.

 

combination of poor crossing planning and restrictions and population that is not very aware when it comes to crossing rr tracts. It’s a privately funded rr project so lots of pushback on safety costs. Looks like brightline has tried to blame most of suicides which is an obvious obfuscation of lack of safety at crossings and along tracks.

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/01/29/799962246/brightline-nations-deadliest-railroad-after-high-number-of-track-deaths

timeline of deaths
 

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/death-train-a-timeline-of-brightline-deaths-in-miami-fort-lauderdale-west-palm-beach-13717396

 

i too feel for the poor train engineers that have to deal with idiots trying to beat them across the tracks and the death that results along with potential to injure them.

 

cheers

 

jeff