WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Imagine, crossing railroad tracks and seeing no warning lights or sounds, and then seeing a train coming straight to you.
That's what Trish Utter says happened to her while out walking her dog Rupert on Monday morning.
Utter says she was crossing the Brightline tracks in downtown West Palm Beach and was halfway across the tracks when she saw train headlights.
"To my horror, the train was moving. It wasn't stopped. It was actually moving towards me," Utter recalled.
She and her dog ran as fast as they could to the other side.
Utter says she didn't hear or see any safety warnings go off until the train was already past her.
She also took video showing the crossroad guard rails stuck in an upward position. Only one came down to block pedestrians and drivers.
"You never expect to see that, and it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it," she said.
A spokesperson for Brightline clarified that one of the guard rails cracked just five minutes prior to Utter's crossing.
They could not say how the rail broke, but that it caused for the safety warnings to not work properly. Following protocol, the conductor dropped the train's speed to 15 mph or less, until a crew could fix the system.
Utter said it was lucky there was no traffic at the time: "Absolute bloody miracle."
Even though the train was going much slower than usual, it brings little comfort to Utter, who knows several people have been hit and killed so far this year on the tracks.
"I feel lucky that I'm going to have another Christmas," she said.
