One person dead after Brightline strikes car in Lake Worth Beach

Sonja Isger, Palm Beach Post
·1 min read
A car smashed by a Brightline train landed in a fence next to the FEC tracks near 17th Avenue North and F Street in Lake Worth Beach, Florida on February 13, 2022.
A car smashed by a Brightline train landed in a fence next to the FEC tracks near 17th Avenue North and F Street in Lake Worth Beach, Florida on February 13, 2022.

LAKE WORTH BEACH — A Brightline train struck a car Sunday evening, killing at least one person in the vehicle, Palm Beach County Sheriff's officials report.

The crash happened at 4:07 p.m. at 17th Avenue North and F Street. Details are scant. Palm Beach County sheriff's investigators were at the scene through the evening, but no further details were released late Sunday.

Safety along the tracks has been an issue for Brightline since the high-speed rail line began service in 2018. There are few permanent barriers to its tracks, which have scores of vehicle crossings between West Palm Beach and downtown Miami.

More than 50 people have died in crashes involving Brightline trains in the rail line's history, many of them motorists, pedestrians or bicyclists who either misjudged the trains' speeds or ignored lowered gates, sounds or other warnings.

The last two months saw three Brightline crashes, one involving a pedestrian in Boynton Beach who was killed, another in which three people were hurt in a car in Lantana, and in Broward County, two people were killed in Hallandale Beach when a car that drove around the traffic gates was hit by a train.

@sonjaisger

sisger@pbpost.com

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: One person dead after Brightline strikes car in Lake Worth Beach