Pedestrian killed in Brightline passenger train collision in Melbourne
The high-speed Brightline passenger train that began its long-awaited service from Orlando to Miami less than a month ago hit and killed a 60-year-old woman on Thursday in Melbourne.
It was the first Brightline-related fatality in Brevard County since the new service started on Sept. 22.
The deadly accident happened close to 2:45 p.m. near the intersection of Aurora Road and Cypress Avenue. Police were at the scene of the collision. The body was spotted near the east side of the train tracks near U.S. 1.
The pedestrian was identified as Lisa Marie Molnar, of Melbourne.
The privately owned passenger train has no stops in Brevard County but authorities have warned residents with signs and notices to be alert to the fast-moving trains, which utilize train tracks that parallel the busy U.S. 1 corridor in the county, including the heavily pedestrian downtown Melbourne area.
A Brightline train was stopped on the tracks between Aurora Road and Eau Gallie Boulevard after the accident but later departed. Melbourne police closed eastbound Aurora Road at the railroad tracks, detouring traffic down Southland Avenue. The traffic route reopened about 5 p.m. Traffic homicide agents were investigating whether drugs or alcohol may have been a factor.
The medical examiner's office was called to retrieve the remains and will conduct an investigation.
Brightline runs multiple high-speed passenger lines between Miami and Orlando while on some routes sharing the same train tracks used by the Florida East Coast Roadway.
More: Railway deaths: Brightline was deadliest in 2022; says safety ‘a shared responsibility’
TC Palm reported Oct. 16 that at least 364 people have been killed by trains belonging to 13 different companies in Florida since 2017.
Brightline trains killed more people per mile in the U.S. last year and more people in Florida since its founding in 2017 than any other railroad company, a TCPalm analysis of federal data found.
Since its operations began in 2017, at least 97 people were killed by Brightline trains in three Florida counties through July 30, according to U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Railroad Administration records updated Oct. 5.
Those counties:
44: Broward.
33: Palm Beach.
20: Miami-Dade.
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jdgallop@floridatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Woman struck, killed by Brightline train in Melbourne
