This article provides details for a significant fraction of the deaths. Reading through at random:
I start with a very strong prior that floridians aren’t actually outliers, and something is wrong with the train.
A large fraction are reported suicides, and of that, a large fraction are verified suicides, i.e. lying on the tracks. This seems hard to prevent engineering-wise, it seems a fix will have to be psychological- for example, tall parking garages aren’t banned for suicide risk, but that one sculpture made of stairs had to be. The complaint that brightline is responsible for these specifically because they didn’t invest in suicide crisis signs, seems farcical, but there is also likely some there there.
A large fraction involve intentionally bypassing lowered crossing gates, including many of the pedestrian deaths. A smaller but large fraction involved reacting to the gates coming down by stopping on the tracks and sitting there for several minutes until the train came and killed them. This fraction was disproportionaltely over 75. One case illustrated how this isn’t prima facie insane- an elderly couple was crossing in a car when the gate closed behind them, they stopped and waited for several minutes for the freight train to pass, but didn’t understand that they were waiting on the second rail line where a second train was coming.
A different large fraction of the pedestrian deaths were scary and illustrate classic safety issues that come from intermittent extreme risk- the trains are flying silently through neighborhoods at 80 mph, people walk over these tracks pretty casually, sometimes they get hit. This part lacks sensationalism, but appears to be the majority of the death, and the core of the case that something is very wrong here.
A small fraction, but not that small, are classic florida man- for example, one victim rode a scooter into the side of the train and died, appears to be an accident not a suicide.
Also lots of drugs, but this may just be the base rate
https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/death-train-a-timeline-of-brightline-deaths-in-miami-fort-lauderdale-west-palm-beach-13717396/
This article provides details for a significant fraction of the deaths. Reading through at random:
I start with a very strong prior that floridians aren’t actually outliers, and something is wrong with the train.
A large fraction are reported suicides, and of that, a large fraction are verified suicides, i.e. lying on the tracks. This seems hard to prevent engineering-wise, it seems a fix will have to be psychological- for example, tall parking garages aren’t banned for suicide risk, but that one sculpture made of stairs had to be. The complaint that brightline is responsible for these specifically because they didn’t invest in suicide crisis signs, seems farcical, but there is also likely some there there.
A large fraction involve intentionally bypassing lowered crossing gates, including many of the pedestrian deaths. A smaller but large fraction involved reacting to the gates coming down by stopping on the tracks and sitting there for several minutes until the train came and killed them. This fraction was disproportionaltely over 75. One case illustrated how this isn’t prima facie insane- an elderly couple was crossing in a car when the gate closed behind them, they stopped and waited for several minutes for the freight train to pass, but didn’t understand that they were waiting on the second rail line where a second train was coming.
A different large fraction of the pedestrian deaths were scary and illustrate classic safety issues that come from intermittent extreme risk- the trains are flying silently through neighborhoods at 80 mph, people walk over these tracks pretty casually, sometimes they get hit. This part lacks sensationalism, but appears to be the majority of the death, and the core of the case that something is very wrong here.
A small fraction, but not that small, are classic florida man- for example, one victim rode a scooter into the side of the train and died, appears to be an accident not a suicide.
Also lots of drugs, but this may just be the base rate