A scooter driver died after hitting high-speed train in Florida

A scooter driver died after hitting high-speed train in Florida. 

Officials reported that a scooter driver died after going past reduced crossing gates and colliding with a passing Brightline train. 

The latest in a long line of tragedies involving the higher-speed passenger service.

The lady was riding a scooter near Pompano Beach at 11:20 a.m. Saturday. When she made a left turn, she got past the crossing gates. 

Then she collided with the train, according to the Broward Sheriff’s Office. She was declared dead on the spot. Her age and name have not been revealed.

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According to an ongoing Associated Press investigation that started in 2019, the lady was the 63rd person known to have died in a collision with a Brightline train since it began operating in mid-2017, giving it the worst per-mile death rate in the country.

Brightline trains had an average of one fatality per 33,000 kilometers they ran. The next worst rate is one fatality every 101,000 miles for railways that travel at least 100,000 miles per year.

Investigators determined that none of the previous fatalities were caused by the railroad. 

Several were caused by suicides, automobiles, or pedestrians attempting to beat the trains. 

The trains go up to 79 mph through heavily populated urban and suburban areas on a 70-mile stretch of rail shared by Brightline and the Florida East Coast freight line between Miami and West Palm Beach.

Brightline has upped its efforts to reduce fatalities, including installing cameras to inform staff if someone is loitering near the lines and the addition of fence and landscaping to make access to the tracks more difficult.

Brightline is nearing completion on a line that will run at 120 mph between West Palm Beach and Orlando. 

It intends to link Orlando and Tampa in the future. A railway between Southern California and Las Vegas is also being built.

According to CBS Miami, back-to-back fatal crashes occurred last week. First, on Monday, a guy was struck and murdered near Pompano Beach, and his vehicle was unrecognizable. 

Then, a day later, a man was murdered when the Brightline struck his vehicle on Hollywood tracks.

Ramos spoke before the Hallandale Beach commission, arguing for extra safety precautions near the rails.

“Whose kid needs to die next before this becomes a problem,” Ramos told the commissioners and mayor. “If I have to go to the governor of Florida, I will keep talking about this.”