Video shows truck barely beat train
The red lights are flashing. The gates are coming down. A Brightline train is approaching at high speed. And that’s the moment the driver of a pickup truck chooses to roll the dice with death.
With the train’s horn blaring, the truck makes it — by seconds.
And witnesses who captured the heart-stopping moment are left shaking their heads in disbelief.
“Look at this guy, look at this guy,” exclaims Jeri West of Deerfield Beach to her husband, Geoff, as the white pickup truck passes one car and heads for the crossing.
And after the near disaster, she can’t contain herself. “Unbelievable! Unbelievable!”
But the scene was all too believable. Starting with the high-speed train’s VIP run Jan. 12, three people have been hit on the tracks, two fatally.
Those tragedies have
prompted Brightline to launch an education campaign and announce it will be deploying staff at key intersections from Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach to promote safety — and urge people to steer clear of railroad crossings when trains approach.
The action on the video happened Monday at the crossing on Northeast Second Street in Deerfield Beach, but Geoff West, 70, didn’t realize his dashcam footage could be an educational tool until he was talking to a friend about the recent Brightline accidents.
“I hope it makes people more aware,” he said. “On these trains, there’s definitely less time between when the gates go down and the train comes than the freight trains we’re used to.”
Brightline had no official comment on the video. Company officials pointed out last week that the crossing gates stop traffic for just 40 seconds.
West got the dashcam for Christmas, with the idea that he’d have a record if someone were to hit him.
“I wasn’t thinking that we’d be recording people nearly getting hit by trains,” he said.