Vehicle strike. Some sources say this vehicle ran into side of train?
1 killed, several hospitalized after Brightline train collides with SUV in Melbourne (clickorlando.com)
Now a 2nd collision same crossing car on tracks.
Melbourne police: Two dead in Friday Brightline crash (tcpalm.com)
I am certain the the Brightline power cars have forward facing video of the incidents.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
One news report mentioned that the driver today ran around the gates. Wonder if Brightline could file a claim with the driver's insurance policy?
BaltACDI am certain the the Brightline power cars have forward facing video of the incidents.
Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak
Erik_MagOne news report mentioned that the driver today ran around the gates. Wonder if Brightline could file a claim with the driver's insurance policy?
There is only so much a reasonable company or person can do. I think even if the tracks were grade seperated you might still have someone drive up the embankment, through the fence and get their car stuck on the tracks.
NTSB is investigating both crashes, and it will be interesting to see the developing docket.
I had thought the premise of all these rebuilt crossings was that they would be four-gate crossings. While two of the four arms may be lowered later 'to give an escape for people trapped on the tracks', they should all be down at least 10-20sec before the train arrives on the crossing. What I see in the security video of the Julian crash is that he drives around a stopped car but makes it all the way to collision with the side of the locomotive nose without any visible impediment like striking a gate. I don't see how that should have been possible.
Overmod NTSB is investigating both crashes, and it will be interesting to see the developing docket. I had thought the premise of all these rebuilt crossings was that they would be four-gate crossings. While two of the four arms may be lowered later 'to give an escape for people trapped on the tracks', they should all be down at least 10-20sec before the train arrives on the crossing. What I see in the security video of the Julian crash is that he drives around a stopped car but makes it all the way to collision with the side of the locomotive nose without any visible impediment like striking a gate. I don't see how that should have been possible.
Perhaps even better if it were 30-45 seconds between when gates fully lower and a train entering.
I wonder if installing the one-way tire damaging strips would help to block cars from going around the gate while still allowing cars to exit the crossing. One improvement is a mechanism to hold the points down when the gates are open to allow emergency vehicles to use the opposing traffic lanes and also prevent damage to cars traversing the strips.
One other thought is how many incidents have to occur at a crossing before Brightline can tell the city to either fix the problem (e.g. much more enforcement) or have the crossing closed to vehicular traffic. A possible enforcement option is cameras at crossings with notices of violations sent directly to the insurance company covering the car.
I understand Brightline has been having incident since the day they started having training runs between West Palm Beach and Miami - and those incident have continued with rerularity - I don't know if the FEC is haveing the same level of incidents as Brightline is on the same crossings.
S.Florida drivers are among the most brain dead I have personally encountered.
BaltACDS.Florida drivers are among the most brain dead I have personally encountered.
Some of it might be medical related though. I remember speaking with a GM Engineer at Warren back when I worked at GM HQ. Remember the last giant Chevy Caprice Classic back in the 1990's? He stated there was a safety inquiry about why so many accidents with it in Florida and what GM found was the foot lbs of pressure on the brake pedal was a little high for elderly folks to stop the car faster versus other cars and older folks were the primary market for that car in Florida. So you never know if that is contributing here in some respects. The guy in one of these accidents was fairly up there in age. Also, without the hood ornaments on some of these newer cars they might have issues aiming the front of the car when they drive.
Hey, wow, on a related note, found my color EMD builder photos that were given me when I worked at GM. The old BN SD70MAC order included. Woo-Hoo!!
Driving around in South FL where I vist multiple times a year, it seems about a quater of the drivers are always dramatically speeding and changing lanes so they would probably be willing to drive around the down gates. Brightline is going to have to install 4 gates across all the crossings sooner or later due to public outcry. Maybe they can get some government reimbursement from some level to help.
There are a lot of elederly people driving in much of FL and that has been and always will be the case.
Not sure if there's any info on the ages of the drivers who have been hit by Brightline trains, but I'd risk betting a good amount of money that older people are a small minority of the ones driving around gates.
York1 John
York1Not sure if there's any info on the ages of the drivers who have been hit by Brightline trains, but I'd risk betting a good amount of money that older people are a small minority of the ones driving around gates.
D.Carleton York1 Not sure if there's any info on the ages of the drivers who have been hit by Brightline trains, but I'd risk betting a good amount of money that older people are a small minority of the ones driving around gates. This is by no means scientific nor exhaustive; when I was compiling post-accident reports in SoFlo it involved the mechanical relevancies: MP, consist, lead locomotive, inspection of brakes, headlights, windshield, etc. This was handed to the railroad and they dealt with the particulars. But correlating the incident with what was reported in the media the vast majority of last time drivers showed they were above 40 years of age and usually between 45-60. These were neither young kids nor seniors. Rather, most are "middle aged" and certainly knew better.
York1 Not sure if there's any info on the ages of the drivers who have been hit by Brightline trains, but I'd risk betting a good amount of money that older people are a small minority of the ones driving around gates.
This is by no means scientific nor exhaustive; when I was compiling post-accident reports in SoFlo it involved the mechanical relevancies: MP, consist, lead locomotive, inspection of brakes, headlights, windshield, etc. This was handed to the railroad and they dealt with the particulars. But correlating the incident with what was reported in the media the vast majority of last time drivers showed they were above 40 years of age and usually between 45-60. These were neither young kids nor seniors. Rather, most are "middle aged" and certainly knew better.
I guess from my point of reference, being in my 70s, I don't consider 45 to 60-year-olds 'older'. I'm sure my daughters would think the opposite.
"In spite of rising ridership and revenue, Miami-based private train service Brightline still finished hundreds of million of dollars in the red in the first nine months of 2023.
"According to Brightline's latest quarterly unaudited financial statement report released Dec. 29, Brightline posted a net and comprehensive loss of $192.2 million between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30."
charlie hebdocharlie hebdo wrote the following post 21 minutes ago: "In spite of rising ridership and revenue, Miami-based private train service Brightline still finished hundreds of million of dollars in the red in the first nine months of 2023. "According to Brightline's latest quarterly unaudited financial statement report released Dec. 29, Brightline posted a net and comprehensive loss of $192.2 million between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30."
Not surprised and their business plan from the start said they would not achieve profitability until after Orlando had opened. Not sure when after Orlando opened was their target for profitability but they still have not broken with their original business plan yet. Also, they should get credit for the pandemic, that would have shutdown any transportation company that was weakly financed but Brightline is still operating. Interestingly I heard they placed another order for additional Siemens trainsets. Not sure what those are for? Tampa or more frequencies?
Noticed TriRail is using Miami Central station downtown now.
There are no orders for "trainsets" although the press at large couldn't likely define one. Twenty more coaches were on order last time I checked, ten for this year and the balance for next year filling out the ten sets to six cars. I have not ridden the extension yet but the unofficial intel I've received is the trains north of WPB are running half full. That is leaps and bounds ahead of where service started in 2018 when the trains were practically empty. Paradigm shifts take a while and Brightline seems to be ahead of the curve.
D.Carleton And my guess is that these middle aged folks always drove around gates. But now that they're middle aged their reflexes and judgments are no longer split second. So they get hit Reminds me if a story my mom told me. Ever since she was a little girl one neighbor would jump off the slowly moving train rather than wait to the station and walk back. This was in the era of end platforms on trains. Anyhow as he aged he still continued to jump off when one time he misjudged and somehow got caught under the train and was grisly killed. York1 Not sure if there's any info on the ages of the drivers who have been hit by Brightline trains, but I'd risk betting a good amount of money that older people are a small minority of the ones driving around gates. This is by no means scientific nor exhaustive; when I was compiling post-accident reports in SoFlo it involved the mechanical relevancies: MP, consist, lead locomotive, inspection of brakes, headlights, windshield, etc. This was handed to the railroad and they dealt with the particulars. But correlating the incident with what was reported in the media the vast majority of last time drivers showed they were above 40 years of age and usually between 45-60. These were neither young kids nor seniors. Rather, most are "middle aged" and certainly knew better.
And my guess is that these middle aged folks always drove around gates. But now that they're middle aged their reflexes and judgments are no longer split second. So they get hit
Reminds me if a story my mom told me. Ever since she was a little girl one neighbor would jump off the slowly moving train rather than wait to the station and walk back. This was in the era of end platforms on trains. Anyhow as he aged he still continued to jump off when one time he misjudged and somehow got caught under the train and was grisly killed.
What I find the most interesting of this thread is the thread title. "Brightline collisions with vehicles" instead of "Vehicle collisions with Brightline". Anyone else analyze it that way with the title? .........then think about it?
JL ChicagoAnd my guess is that these middle aged folks always drove around gates. But now that they're middle aged their reflexes and judgments are no longer split second. So they get hit Reminds me if a story my mom told me. Ever since she was a little girl one neighbor would jump off the slowly moving train rather than wait to the station and walk back. This was in the era of end platforms on trains. Anyhow as he aged he still continued to jump off when one time he misjudged and somehow got caught under the train and was grisly killed.
Blomberg reports Brightline revised 2024 ridership numbers down 21% from previous estimate.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-26/brightline-florida-s-high-speed-railroad-slashes-2024-ridership-forecast?fbclid=IwAR12QjZLnrIDysFUBaSMxicbztGOMzdl0jNxzGeahwYzjnBuUr5645DTsCE
charlie hebdoBlomberg reports Brightline revised 2024 ridership numbers down 21% from previous estimate.
D.Carletonthe initial projections were so far off one wondered if the were meant to be taken seriously
Hate to say this because a small few will view it as political due to recent events.
However, it is very true that most businesses tend to overstate items on a business plan or business submission in order to get better financing. Now the legal question is actually how much overstatement is too much or is viewed as completely obnoxious and how much overstatement is just based on an optimistic view. I think I know what that % should be for Real Estate but I have no clue for future ridership stats on a passenger train.
I think Amtrak regularly takes this approach too. Looking at the TCMC train that will start up across Wisconsin in 2024. I don't for a minute think 125,000 riders a year is going to be achieved near startup. I think WisDOT and Amtrak estimated that number and the estimation was probably not conservative because both organizations wanted funding for the train.
BTW, I might also add in support of this and it was part of Intermediate Accounting course in college. Common business practice to shift inventories at year end to make earnings or revenues look better. The fact this is part of GAAP teaching is interesting. The old story they used at UW was the Oil Company that pumped water into their tanks in the old days to raise the oil level in the storage tank knowing that oil floats on water and that the auditor might not dip their stick in all the way to the bottom of the tank to get a reading on how much oil was in the tank.
CMStPnP The old story they used at UW was the Oil Company that pumped water into their tanks in the old days to raise the oil level in the storage tank knowing that oil floats on water and that the auditor might not dip their stick in all the way to the bottom of the tank to get a reading on how much oil was in the tank.
The old story they used at UW was the Oil Company that pumped water into their tanks in the old days to raise the oil level in the storage tank knowing that oil floats on water and that the auditor might not dip their stick in all the way to the bottom of the tank to get a reading on how much oil was in the tank.
That sounds like what Tino DiAngelis and the Allied Crude Vegetable Oil Refining Company pulled in the late 1950's.
D.Carleton charlie hebdo Blomberg reports Brightline revised 2024 ridership numbers down 21% from previous estimate. To be fair it sounds like what happened when service started in 2018; the initial projections were so far off one wondered if the were meant to be taken seriously. They had to find their "mojo," that is, solve the first/last-mile issue for the ticket holders. For the downtown stations in SoFlo that meant a fleet of yellow Teslas, vans, bicycles and golf carts. MCO offers a bit more of a challenge. I know what I'd do but it's not my problem anymore.
charlie hebdo Blomberg reports Brightline revised 2024 ridership numbers down 21% from previous estimate.
To be fair it sounds like what happened when service started in 2018; the initial projections were so far off one wondered if the were meant to be taken seriously. They had to find their "mojo," that is, solve the first/last-mile issue for the ticket holders. For the downtown stations in SoFlo that meant a fleet of yellow Teslas, vans, bicycles and golf carts. MCO offers a bit more of a challenge. I know what I'd do but it's not my problem anymore.
I've watched many of the Brightline reveiw videos on youtube. And the recurring theme in most of them is "Is Brightline worth the cost?"
Even if people aren't totally budget-minded, after watching a few videos that harp on that question, you may think about the ticket costs a bit more. Esp. if you are travelling with more than 1 or 2 people, or want to go premium class (unless you drink a lot of the provided Pepsis?)
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
zugmannI've watched many of the Brightline reveiw videos on youtube. And the recurring theme in most of them is "Is Brightline worth the cost?"
CMStPnPHowever, it is very true that most businesses tend to overstate items on a business plan or business submission in order to get better financing.
The problem with that approach is that you are burning your bridges for the future when you need more financing or desire to see the stock price rise so that top executives can cash in on their stock options.
This has happened here in the UK when a guy fell asleep at the wheel of his pick-up and ran off the road onto the main York to London rail line. Hit by a 100mph train killing several people, not himself though!
blue streak 1Vehicle strike. Some sources say this vehicle ran into side of train?
Yes, in one of the crashes, a car was stopped at the crossing with the crossbuck lights flashing and the crossing gates being down. An SUV drives around the stopped car, and drives into the rear of the lead engine of the train.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XIKAhzfX9c
Note the heading is "Brightline Slams into SUV", when really the opposite occured....
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