Brevard County fast tracking rail safety after fatal crashes
Brightline is installing portable red-light cameras at Melbourne’s W.H. Jackson Street railroad crossing in partnership with the Florida East Coast Railway Police Department.
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It’s just the latest effort to improve safety after two fatal crashes at that crossing last month.
Investigators believe the drivers in those crashes may have gone around the crossing arms.
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Three people lost their lives. We told you when Brightline installed delineators at the same crossing last week to try to keep drivers in their lanes when the crossing arms are down.
Now, red light cameras will capture images of drivers who still violate the law.
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Brightline tells us, violators will be mailed a warning. Melbourne Police have no plan for local red-light enforcement, but officers will enforce infractions they see.
The cameras being installed at the Melbourne crossing should be operational within a week.
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The City of Melbourne’s mayor told us, the delineators and cameras are just a temporary fix.
Mayor Paul Alfrey says, the city hopes to have quad gates at the five crossings without them by the end of this year.
Those quad gates would block traffic on both sides of the track when activated by an oncoming train.
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