DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Federal investigators continue to seek answers on how a fire truck ended up on the railroad tracks in Delray Beach on Saturday, leading to a collision involving a Brightline train.
WPTV spoke to one of the passengers on board the train at the time of the collision.
Zach Thrasher said he and 13 other family members were heading back to Orlando after a weeklong holiday cruise. They got on the train in Miami and said it was about 10:45 a.m. when the impact occurred.
"We felt the initial brake and it was a very hard brake and within I would say less than a second after the brake it was the impact," Thrasher said.
Delray Beach
15 injured after firetruck collides with Brightline train
He said he wasn't severely injured by the incident.
"I kind of slammed into the table," Thrasher said. "I had some bumps and bruises but nothing major thankfully. I know some of the people that were maybe in between going to the restroom and their seat those are the ones I think sustained the most injuries."
Thrasher said at first it was unclear what they had hit.
"Initially we didn't know we hit a fire truck," Thrasher said. "We knew we hit something. We assumed it was a car. It was something significant obviously."
Officials said twelve Brightline passengers and three firefighters were injured in the crash, but everyone is expected to be OK.
"The employees I saw that were in my (train) car immediately grabbed first aid equipment from what happened to be behind our seat," Thrasher said. "They proceeded to go help somebody."
He said he's thankful no one lost their life and glad to be home now.
"Within under two hours, they had another train there," Thrasher said. "They were able to transfer us from the wrecked train to the rescue train and get us back safely."
He told WPTV he will continue to ride Brightline because he considers it safe.
