INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Police say a woman was walking on the tracks when a passenger Brightline train hit her Thursday evening. This happened in the same place where a man was killed a month earlier.
An official from the Indian River County Sheriff’s Office said that deputies gave first aid to the 40-year-old woman, who had a serious arm injury and was awake while she was being taken to the hospital.
Aide to Fort Pierce Fire Chief Steve Greer said Friday, “She’s in serious but stable condition” at HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital. Officials from the sheriff’s office say she should live.
Around 6 p.m., the accident happened on the tracks north of the 12th Street railroad crossing, behind a Publix food store and shopping center.
An officer named Sgt. Kevin Jaworski said the woman was walking with someone who was said to be her boyfriend to a nearby homeless camp. He said the man wasn’t hurt.
Detectives are working with teams from Brightline, which runs high-speed trains, and Florida East Coast Railway, which owns the railway.
Jaworski said, “They’ll work to find out what caused the crash.” “At first glance, it looks like the people involved were inappropriately near the railroad tracks when the accident happened.”
Before Brightline started running from Orlando to Miami in 2023, there was a homeless camp in the grassy area west of the tracks. When the service started, the area was cleared by police and marked with no-trespassing signs.
Jaworski said that the two were thought to be drunk.
Police wouldn’t say who they were, but they said both of them were adults.
We don’t think anyone is up to no good.
Deputies used a trauma kit and tourniquet from the agency to treat the woman’s arm, which was said to be almost completely cut off.
This is the second time something like this has happened there in a month. The Indian River County Sheriff’s Office says that on December 10, a Brightline train hit and killed a man near 12th Street and Old Dixie Highway.
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