DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — 15 people have been injured following an incident involving a Delray Beach Fire Rescue truck and a Brightline train Saturday morning.
“I was on a call with a friend of mine and the next thing you know I heard the crash,” said Delray Beach resident Alek Dunn who lives across the street from where it happened. “I saw the train deploy its emergency brakes and slow down.”
According to Delray Beach Fire Rescue, at around 10:45 a.m. an aerial apparatus ladder firetruck was crossing the FEC tracks near the intersection of SE 1st Street when it was struck by a Brightline train.
Video released by Brightline from on board the train shows the moment just before the train collided with the fire truck. In the video you can see the gates are down.
Brightline posted a statement to their X account along with the video. It reads, “railroad safety is a community wide effort. For everyone’s safety, never drive around crossing gates when they are down.”
According to Matt Saraceni, Sergeant of the Delray Beach Police Traffic Homicide Unit, three firefighters were hospitalized with injuries. Two of the firefighters were transported as trauma alerts to Delray Beach Medical Center and all are in stable condition.
12 Brightline passengers were transported to the hospital with minor injuries.
Downtown Delray Beach visitor Victoria Var-Heibak said, “I mean to make it out of that with seeing the damage—it’s intense.”
“I don’t know how a vehicle was on the train tracks and especially a fire truck,” said Delray Beach resident, Kevin Keller.
The Delray Beach Fire Department says details of exactly what lead up to the crash are still under investigation.
“At this point all that information is being investigated through a multi-agency, multi-partner investigative process,” said Delray Beach Fire Chief Ronald Martin.
Martin added that there was a call to service in the area shortly before this incident, but could not confirm if the truck was assigned or released from that call at the time of the crash.
“It’s scary. I mean it almost feels like you're in a war zone here with all this rubble on the ground and there is a lot of first responders here,” said Downtown Delray visitor, Lyn Spaeth.
Crews spent the afternoon clearing large pieces of debris from the fire truck, while Brightline worked to remove the train from the tracks.
“Seeing this. My heart just went into my stomach,” said Delray resident Margo Siciliano.
“It’s unbelievable. I mean this is the worst thing I’ve ever seen here,” said Keller.
The Brightline train has since been removed. E Atlantic Avenue is now reopen while SE 1st Street is still shut down at this time as the investigation is still underway by the Delray Beach Police Department, Brightline officials, and the National Transportation Safety Board.
This is a developing story, stay with WPTV for updates.
