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Brightline train hits, kills man in Delray Beach

Police: Man struck by train while crossing tracks Tuesday morning
Brightline train on tracks after fatal crash in Delray Beach, Aug. 2, 2022
Posted at 9:24 AM, Aug 02, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-02 20:44:03-04

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — A man was hit and killed by a Brightline train Tuesday morning in Delray Beach, police said.

The crash happened just before 9 a.m. near Southeast Eighth Street and Southeast First Avenue.

According to a police department spokesman, the man was crossing the train tracks from west to east when he was struck. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The Brightline train had been stopped on the tracks since 8:45 a.m., but eventually got moving again at about 10:15 a.m.

"It's a very deadly situation to try and beat a train, whether you're walking or you're in a vehicle," said Ted White, the public information officer for the Delray Beach Police Department. "This was an area where a pedestrian was not suppose to be, an area where there was a path that clearly had no trespassing markings all around the area."

In January 2020, an Associated Press analysis found that Brightline had the worst death rate per mile of any railroad in the country.

Investigators, however, found that none of the deaths were the railroad's fault, determining that many were suicides or drivers or pedestrians trying to beat the trains.

Brightline trains travel up to 79 mph through densely populated urban and suburban areas along about 70 miles of track between Miami and West Palm Beach. The company hopes to complete its expansion to Orlando in early 2023.

Brightline previously released surveillance video of a crash in February when a driver tried to beat a train, but was struck and taken to the hospital with "incapacitating injuries."

WATCH: Surveillance video of Brightline train crash

Surveillance video of Brightline crash