The incident occurred on Saturday, Dec. 28 between a Brightline train and Delray Beach Fire Rescue ladder truck
Kirsty Hatcher is an Associate Editor on the People.com Morning Team. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2023. Her work previously appeared on ok.co.uk, in OK! Magazine and Reach PLC magazines.
Published on December 30, 2024 08:48AM EST
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A collision between a train and a fire truck in Delray Beach, Fla. has left 15 people hospitalized, including three firefighters.
In a statement shared on Facebook, the Delray Beach Fire Rescue and the Delray Beach Police Department said the incident occurred on Saturday, Dec. 28 between a Brightline train and a Delray Beach Fire Rescue ladder truck.
“Three Delray Beach firefighters were transported to a local hospital, where they remain in stable condition,” the statement continued. “Palm Beach County Fire Rescue provided assistance, transporting 12 individuals from the train to the hospital with minor injuries.’
According to Delray Beach Fire Rescue, per ABC News, the firefighters were en route to a call when the accident took place.
The incident happened near E. Atlantic Avenue and Railroad Avenue around 10:45 a.m. local time.
Brightline later released a video on X (formerly known as Twitter) of camera footage from the train that hit the fire truck. In the video, the fire truck can be seen on the tracks just seconds before the collision.
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“From the Brightline Safety and Security Team: Railroad safety is a community wide effort. For everyone’s safety, never drive around crossing gates when they are down,” Brightline wrote alongside the video.
The cause of the collision is being investigated by the Delray Beach Police Department, officials from Brightline and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), per the Facebook statement.
Authorities are looking into whether the crossing gates were functioning properly at the time of the incident, according to ABC News.
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Passenger Zach Thrasher told CBS News Miami that the collision happened in “a second.”
“We felt an initial brake, and then the impact happened almost immediately after the brake,” he told the outlet. “It was an interesting way to end the holiday vacation.”
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Though he didn’t have time to brace for the impact, Thrasher said he thinks the table on top of his seat saved him from getting more than a few minor bruises.
“I’m happy the table was there, but if it wasn’t there I probably would have flown into the seat in front of me,” he said, adding that “staff did a really good job of quickly calming everybody down making sure we knew what was happening.”