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Two people were killed after a high-speed Brightline train in Florida slammed into a car that was stuck on the tracks. Officials said that the crossing gates were down and the lights were flashing, and the bells were ringing when the driver of a blue Toyota tried to go around the gates.
Their car got stuck on the tracks and the train, which travels at speeds of nearly 80 mph, was unable to stop in time. The vehicle was destroyed on impact and ended up on the other side of the road. The driver and a passenger in the car were killed. Nobody on the train was hurt.
“It’s amazing how it ended up over there. It must have been some force because the train you can see is down the tracks a little bit, and the car is here, closer towards the lights,” Steve Samansky, a driver in the area, told WSVN. “It just must have been unbearable.”
Caesar Tavares told the news station that people are always trying to go around the crossing gates at the intersection.
“The train comes here every 15 minutes, and people are always stopping on the tracks. I knew it was bound to happen.”
This is the fifth collision involving a Brightline train since the service was restarted in November following a 19-month hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Miami Herald reported.