15 injured after Brightline train collides with fire truck in Florida
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(DELRAY BEACH, Fla.) — A Brightline train collided with a fire truck on Saturday morning in Delray Beach, Florida, injuring three firefighters and 12 train passengers, city officials said.
The three injured Delray Beach firefighters were transported to a local hospital, where they are currently in stable condition. Two of the firefighters were initially listed in critical condition, but their status has since been updated.
In addition to the firefighters, 12 individuals from the train were taken to the hospital with minor injuries, assisted by Palm Beach County Fire Rescue. There have been no reported fatalities.
The accident occurred at around 10:45 a.m. on the East Atlantic Avenue tracks near Railroad Avenue, according to authorities.
According to Delray Beach Fire Rescue, the firefighters were en route to a call when the accident took place.
An active investigation into the cause of the collision is being led by the Delray Beach Police Department, Brightline officials and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Authorities are looking into whether the crossing gates were functioning properly at the time of the incident and have not yet confirmed details regarding the specific cause of the crash.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(TAMPA, Fla.) — As Danny Pownall looked through the piles of debris on the street in front of one of his rental properties in Redington Shores, Florida, he pointed out suitcases, beds and even a workout ball.
“Their lives just got flipped upside down, literally, and dumped on the street,” he said of residents still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall in Florida on Sept. 30 and then cut a path of destruction and death up through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Pownall told ABC News that Helene destroyed his home as well as some of his rental properties. As a line of dump trucks waited to pick up the piles of debris left by Helene, Pownall and other residents in the Tampa metropolitan area are bracing for Hurricane Milton, which the police chief of Tampa described as “the storm of the century.”
“We don’t know what this storm is going to do,” said Pownall, surveying the sagging second-floor terrace of one of his properties still standing. “That could be a one-two punch to take out this property.”
As of Tuesday, Milton was a Category 4 hurricane swirling in the Gulf of Mexico about 500 miles south-by-southwest of Tampa. It is expected to make landfall around 11 p.m. Wednesday between St. Petersburg and Sarasota, possibly as a Category 3 hurricane, officials said.
From Treasure Island near St. Petersburg to Sanibel Island near Fort Miles, officials are preparing for an emergency on top of the emergency left by Helene and issuing mandatory evacuations.
Florida officials warn that Milton is stacking up to be a monster, forecasting a 10-to-15-foot storm surge, nearly twice as high as what transpired in the area during Helene.
“I know that our residents, our staff, everyone is absolutely, purely exhausted from the recovery effort for Hurricane Helene, but we do need to start preparing for another potential serious hit from another hurricane,” Treasure Island Mayor Tyler Payne said in a video message to his community on Monday. “And you’re still trying to recover from that, and now we have to go through it all over again. But it is absolutely critical that you obey the evacuation orders when they are issued and really protect yourself at this point.”
Sarah Steslicki told ABC News on Tuesday that she has endured more than two decades of hurricanes since building her house in Belleair Beach near Tampa, but said she will decide at the last minute whether to evacuate to higher ground.
“We are still staying put. The storm has been delayed. It’s slowed down a bit. We want to make sure we know the path of the storm. Is it safer to stay at home or are we going to leave?” said Steslicki, adding that she lives on high ground and that her garage got about 2 inches of water during the 8-foot storm surge caused by Helene.
The last time multiple hurricanes hit Florida in such a short period was in 2004, when hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne pummeled the state in just six weeks.
“It was chaotic. They were spread out like a week apart,” Steslicki said of surviving the quadruple hit in 2004. “As soon as we’d put our patio furniture out, we’d have to bring it all back in.”
Milton is lining up for a direct hit on the Tampa metro area, which would be the first since 1921. In the time that has passed, the population of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties has grown 20 times over, now home to 2.5 million people.
“We built our house new about 20 years ago. So we know the construction. It’s concrete block,” Steslicki said. “We’d rather be in a safe environment and maybe be out of power and water than to be in jeopardy in a structure that’s not sound.”
Making matters worse, Steslicki said she and her family plan to travel to California on Saturday for her daughter’s wedding.
“It’s especially stressful for us. If there’s any kind of damage, we’re not going to cancel our daughter’s wedding,” Steslicki said.
Kevin Doyle, the co-owner of the Celtic Public House in Punta Gorda, near Fort Myers, said he was taking no chances after staying put during Hurricane Helene. He told ABC News on Tuesday and that he is evacuating south to Coral Gables on the east coast of southern Florida near Miami.
Doyle also survived the 2004 barrage of hurricanes. He said his pub and much of his town were destroyed by Hurricane Charley, which caused $16 billion in damage and, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killed 18 people. Doyle spent seven years rebuilding his business only to see it damaged again by Hurricane Helene.
“It was treacherous; the worst thing to happen,” Doyle said of riding out Helene at home.
Doyle said Helene flooded his pub with up to 42 inches of water and damaged the inside of the business. He said his two cars were also destroyed by the flooding.
Doyle said he finished installing new drywall in his business “in record time” as officials began issuing warnings of Milton. He said he’s erected a 4-foot-high wall of sandbags around his pub hoping it will protect it.
“I’m just hoping it’s not as high as Helene,” he said.
(DELPHI, Ind) — A pattern on the body of Delphi, Indiana, murder victim Libby German showed her blood was mixed with moisture, an officer testified at Richard Allen’s trial. The officer said he believes that moisture was Libby’s tears — which led family members watching his testimony in the courtroom to audibly react.
Libby, 14, and her best friend Abby Williams 13, were walking along a hiking trail in rural Delphi when their throats were cut and they were left in the woods on Feb. 13, 2017. Their bodies were found the next day.
Maj. Pat Cicero of the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Department took the stand Monday. Cicero was not at the crime scene in 2017, but he said he studied the scene photos and various reports.
Abby’s mother cried quietly in the courtroom as prosecutors showed close-up photos of the girls’ faces, bodies, hands, feet and legs.
Cicero showed the jury an image of a blood stain on a tree. He explained it was a transfer stain, meaning it was left behind when a bloodied object touched it.
Cicero testified that the blood stains and patterns on the tree led him to him believe the attack on Libby started at the tree, with swipes of a weapon possibly causing the splatter on the tree.
Libby died from her wounds in a large pool of blood while leaning against the tree, Cicero said. He said he believes she was then dragged about 20 feet to where her body was found.
Abby was likely restrained or unconscious when she was killed, Cicero said, because there was no blood on her hands or arms and she was found with her hands raised vertically.
“Her final position is almost like she was boxing,” he said.
Cicero said he’s been to hundreds of crime scenes and described the position of Abby’s body as very unusual. “I’ve never seen it,” he said.
He also said Abby likely didn’t die right away. “This would have taken some time,” he said.
Allen has admitted to being on the hiking trail the day the girls were killed but he denies any involvement in the murders.
