Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include new information.
DELRAY BEACH — A Brightline passenger train collided with a fire truck in downtown Delray Beach on Saturday morning, splitting the truck in two and sending three firefighters and several train passengers to the hospital, authorities said.
The crash happened about 10:45 a.m. along the Florida East Coast Railway tracks a block south of Atlantic Avenue, across the tracks from the Delray Beach Market food hall.
City officials said the three Delray Beach Fire-Rescue workers were in stable condition at a local hospital and 12 people from the train were treated for minor injuries.
It wasn’t clear why the ladder truck crossed the tracks in front of an oncoming train. The cause of the crash is being investigated by Delray Beach Police and the National Transportation Safety Board, city officials said in a news release.
Brightline, which operates daily trains between Miami and Orlando, did not respond to a message seeking comment Saturday afternoon.
A Brightline passenger train sits near downtown Delray Beach on Saturday afternoon after colliding with a Delray Beach Fire Rescue truck.
Jordan Kotellos, a barback at Throw Social on Southeast Second Avenue, said he heard a bang when the train and truck collided. He ran out the bar’s rear door to encounter a chaotic scene just a few steps past the rear parking lot.
The ladder truck lay on its side, split in two. One of the three firefighters had been flung from the truck and lay in the grass bleeding, he said.
“One guy got thrown,” he said. “It was hard to see, man. It was terrible.”
It wasn’t his first time witnessing a train collision in the downtown area. In March, he said, he was working in a nearby bar when a woman standing on the tracks was struck and killed by a Brightline train.
At least five people have been killed this year in Palm Beach County in collisions with Brightline trains, including two along the same stretch of tracks in downtown Delray Beach where Saturday’s crash occurred.
The crash left one of the city’s ladder trucks destroyed, but the department has two or three other ladder trucks it can rely on when aerial ladders are needed, said retired Delray Beach Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Kevin Saxton.
Saturday’s collision between a Brightline train and a Delray Beach Fire Rescue ladder truck split the truck in half.
Atlantic Avenue remained closed at Southeast 1st Avenue on Saturday afternoon as police investigated the collision. As the sun began to set, two large tow trucks worked in tandem to remove the truck’s debris.
The train had since pulled away. News photos from just after the accident showed the Brightline engine with a destroyed front.
Andrew Marra is a reporter at The Palm Beach Post. Reach him at amarra@pbpost.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Brightline train strikes Delray Beach Fire-Rescue truck
