Brightline: Will fear become reality? Sheriff concerned about 'callous' railroad message

About 10 minutes into my conversation with Eric Flowers, Indian River County’s sheriff offered one of the most morbid predictions I’ve heard since the COVID-19 pandemic.

He wasn’t talking about deaths from natural causes or the relatively few (though always too many) locally from violent crimes or wrecks.

“Literally, there's somebody walking around Indian River County now that doesn't even realize they’ve got a clock running across the top of their head,” Flowers said, noting that potentially deadly Brightline trains were expected to start running locally starting in September. “And that somebody can't see they're just not going to be here with us anymore come this Christmas. And that's insane to me.”

He clearly was worked up after reading my recent column on Brightline’s upcoming service and a railroad expert’s warning that even massive safety improvements likely would not prevent carnage on Treasure Coast rails. So Flowers called me.

Railroad expert issues warning

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Gil Lamphere, a longtime railroad executive, board member and investor from Hobe Sound, issued his warning after reviewing records of Brightline service between Miami and West Palm Beach.

On the Treasure Coast, he said, Florida East Coast Railway has about 12 freight trains running daily at 45 mph compared with a planned 32 passenger trains a day zipping through our area at 80 to 120 mph. That translates into “casualty rates … six to nine times higher” than what he said were the route’s train record of having the highest number of accidents “involving humans.”

Flowers said the predictions seemed to support what a representative of Brightline told a multi-agency group of Indian River County officials during a July 13 meeting: Regardless of company safety measures, there would be wrecks on rails and local first-responders would be expected to clean things up.

They’d be expected to clear the crash scene quickly so Brightline could get a backup train to whisk away stranded passengers heading between Miami and Orlando, Flowers said. The backup train could arrive in 45 minutes and would be important so Brightline could be as close to on time as possible.

Punctuality is critical to Brightline’s success, Lamphere told me. After all, on-time trains at quicker speeds than driving is Brightline’s pitch in selling adult tickets starting at $79 each way.

Flowers said the message from the Brightline representative in July was “so cold and callous and unkind and uncaring. … in that, we're just in their way.” After all, there is no local stop.

“They put a lot of money putting safety measures into the individual spots, but we've had arms that haven't been functioning,” Flowers told me. “What happens when one of those arms doesn't function and somebody crosses and gets smashed? How are we going to handle that? It's a big mess.”

Flowers said first responders have been training on emergency procedures unique to trains, where passengers get on and off via platforms. Part of the training includes getting passengers from a stopped train to a rescue train that pulls up on an adjoining track.

What’s more, he said, detectives are learning how to investigate train wrecks, which largely have been handled by FEC investigators and in some circumstances, the National Transportation Safety Board.

Extra workload doesn't bother everyone

While Flowers is not happy with what he thinks will be an extra workload (he thinks there could be about five deaths a year on local tracks), Matt Monaco, Vero Beach deputy police chief, who also was at the July meeting, and Martin County Sheriff William Snyder were not concerned.

“You don’t know what’s going to happen until the operation begins,” said Monaco, noting that until maybe 15 years ago, city police investigated rail crashes. Such investigations are not much different than others, he added.

Snyder’s not worried about new investigations.

“As sheriff, I never can say no,” he said, noting he has never been pleased with high-speed passenger rail coming through Stuart.

“To put a Brightline train through Confusion Corner: What are they thinking?” he said the other day.

Treasure Coast sheriffs concerned about Brightline safety

Snyder was one of three Treasure Coast sheriffs who in 2015 wrote a joint letter expressing their safety concerns to P. Michael Reininger, then president of what was called All Aboard Florida.

The sheriffs' biggest concern: delays in transporting patients from one side of the tracks to a hospital on the other.

Reininger responded the passenger trains would be so short and proceed so quickly delays would be no longer than at a typical traffic signal. What’s more, the company’s investment of billions of dollars improving rail "infrastructure along the entire length of the corridor," including "significant safety upgrades at every grade crossing," would be "consistent with the highest applicable standards in the country," TCPalm reported.

But since Brightline started in 2018 running between West Palm Beach and Miami, its trains have been involved in at least 90 deaths, including suicides and wrecks the rail line did not cause. That led the Associated Press to report Brightline had the highest fatality rate among the nation’s more than 800 railroads.

Which led to Flowers’ reaction to the July meeting.

“They’re at the critical window of our trains are coming through and we're going to run people over and we want to start partnering with you in advance of this happening,” Flowers said. “(The Brighline presenter) literally said when our train hits somebody and kills somebody or crashes into a car, you're going to have a train full of passengers that need to get to their destination.”

Flowers: Train incidents can lead to tricky investigations

Flowers said the Brightline representative displayed images of passengers walking down the tracks in an unfamiliar place ― which no one wants. Thus, Brightline’s focus would be passenger experience and first-responders’ priority would be the accident scene.

“It's insane because these guys were basically telling us this is to come to be an assignment you guys have to deal with and it's going to be your problem,” Flowers said, adding roadway crashes keep his agency busy enough.

Deputies will have to deal with crashes involving pedestrians. When FEC investigates those, it considers the "victim" a "trespasser," Flowers said.

“That's a person who's lost their life to your train,” Flowers said. “And (now) we have to determine was this person suicidal? Did they make a bad decision and decide to cross the tracks and not realize that thing was going 120 miles an hour?

“Were they on drugs or on alcohol or something that caused … their judgment to be impaired? … All those are the factors we now have to deal with because the stupid train is coming through our county … So I'm not excited about it.”

I hope it’s far less dramatic than the way Lamphere and Flowers see it. We'll soon find out.

This column reflects the opinion of Laurence Reisman. Contact him via email at larry.reisman@tcpalm.com, phone at 772-978-2223, Facebook.com/larryreisman or Twitter @LaurenceReisman.

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This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Sheriff peeved at Brightline idea: Trains hit people; you clean it up