On the first day Brightline services resumed since 2020, a train carrying company executives on their way to a news conference in Miami crashed into a car on its train tracks in Pompano Beach. The car contained a woman and her 1-year-old grandson.
According to Pompano Beach Fire Rescue, both of them got out without any life-threatening injuries. The 71-year-old woman suffered broken bones, while the toddler appeared to be uninjured. Both were taken to Broward Health North after the crash.
All 53 of the passengers also made it out of the collision uninjured. Among them was Brightline President Patrick Goddard, who was going to speak to media regarding the service line’s relaunch after the pandemic caused it to shut down for 20 months.
The train was heading south from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale when the collision happened at Northeast Third Street and North Flagler Avenue at about 10:21 a.m.
Nearby surveillance video showed that the woman’s car was already on the tracks as the train approached and the warning gates went down. She tried to get the car out of the way, but didn’t make it off in time.
Witnesses helped the two people out of the car after the crash, including a Broward County Transit bus driver and a Brightline worker, who is also a retired firefighter.
The boy’s father spoke to Local 10 News, calling his son a “miracle baby.”
“Nobody should have come out alive in this type of crash,” said Evans, who did not want to give his last name.
Brightline later resumed operations between its Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach stations on Monday.
They plan to open stations in Aventura and Boca Raton in 2022 and expand from South Florida to Orlando and its theme parks by 2023.
In the meantime, all employees will be vaccinated against COVID-19. Employees and passengers will also be required to wear face masks inside trains and their stations, in accordance with federal regulations.