Two women survive crash between car and Brightline train

By Rachael Perry

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    JENSEN BEACH, Florida (WPBF) — Two women are recovering after their car collided with a Brightline train.

It happened Sunday afternoon when Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek says the driver was traveling through the roundabout downtown Jensen Beach before she got stuck on the tracks.

“Traffic had been backed up and this lady pulled up to the rear of the vehicle she was behind and had to stop, at which point the crossing arms came down, blocking her inside of that train crossing,” he told WPBF.

Budensiek said once the two women in the car were stuck on the tracks, the passenger tried freeing them.

“The passenger in the car, a younger lady, hopped out of the car, ran up to the crossing arm, tried to push it up, which obviously she wasn’t successful doing, and realized it wouldn’t work. She came back to the vehicle, hopped back in, and placed her seat belt on,” he said.

Moments later, the train, traveling northbound at about 70 miles per hour, collided with the car.

“Initially, it was reported to us that there was serious bodily injury, but thankfully, both survived this with minor injuries and were transported and likely released already,” Budensiek said.

Budensiek said the women are lucky to be alive.

“Now, with these high-speed trains, there’s no time to think. Thankfully, these ladies survived, but generally, when you have two people in a car and you get hit at 65, 70 miles an hour by a train, there are fatalities. So, we’re thankful that it didn’t happen in this case,” he added.

WPBF 25 News asked Budensiek what, if any, solutions he could see for this reoccurring issue.

“The train moving at a slower speed would bring the crashes down,” he said. “We’ve seen a dramatic uptick in crashes since these trains started running through our county. They’re running between 65 to 90 miles per hour, and we’ve seen a lot of crashes. Even though they’ve done a lot to build the infrastructure and they’ve got robust crossing arms and warning signals, we did not have these issues back when it was just freight trains running up and down the East Coast.”

In the meantime, he said the best thing people can do is to obey the signs.

“If it says don’t stop on the tracks, do not stop on the tracks, and that includes reading the traffic. If traffic is backed up, stay on the outside of that crossing until you can see on the other side that there’s room to go,” he said.

Budensiek said if for some reason you get stuck on the tracks, he recommends driving through the crossing arms.

“Drive through them. Those are made to break and fall. Drive through them. It’s a whole lot easier to replace those crossing arms than to try to save lives after a serious crash has occurred,” he told WPBF.

Despite signs and warnings, the Federal Railroad Administration reports 74 people were injured and 41 were killed by Brightline trains in 2024 alone.

A Recipe For Disaster People living and working near downtown Jensen Beach say the roundabout mixed with the Brightline trains is just a recipe for disaster.

Michael Dellinger works at the Thirsty Turtle and is a third-generation resident of Jensen Beach.

“We were just such a small community and now it’s getting sold or populated here. Half the people that come down to visit don’t even know what a roundabout really is. They just go flying through it. They don’t know. They see the tracks go down and they try to beat the train. That’s just something you can’t dabble in. You can’t try to beat the train,” Dellinger said.

He was working the day of the crash and heard the collision.

“We were inside the restaurant, and all of a sudden, we heard a huge boom. Everybody looked over. Our windows rattled. Everybody was jumping out of their vehicles. We saw a tire go flying all the way over there. We saw the bumper go flying all the way over there, and we all came running out,” he said.

Dellinger said he saw the two passengers and was shocked to hear they are OK.

“The lady is very lucky to walk away from that accident after what happened,” he added.

As for the roundabout and the trains, Dellinger told WPBF he hopes a solution comes sooner than later.

“Hopefully, they get this under control somehow because we have a beautiful town, and we love to take care of our people around here. We don’t want people being scared of trying to go through a roundabout,” he said.

WPBF 25 News caught up with a few others who echoed Dellinger’s concerns.

Janet and Jim Lunig said they’re from out of town and said they’ve never heard of so many train crashes until they came to Florida.

“My question would be, why? Why is it happening? What is creating this situation regularly when I’ve never seen it before, except right here,” Janet said.

The couple said they grew up near train tracks on the East Coast and never heard of anyone getting hit.

“We were all told as little kids, you don’t walk on the train tracks, you don’t stop on train tracks,” Jim said.

Jim said he feels it comes down to common sense and patience.

“I think people are in too much of a rush, and they think they can get through, and the next thing you know, they’re on a train track, and they think they’re safe, but they’re not,” he said.

When it comes to preventing these crashes, Janet said maybe signs similar to those used at crosswalks that count down how long someone has to cross could work.

“Maybe there needs to be giant orange signs that light up, or maybe something like the walk signs where it says, you have 13 seconds to get over the tracks. You know what I mean? We know how long we have to get across the street, but maybe that would work on here too,” she said.

What Can Be Done?

WPBF 25 News previously reported that back in 2022, Brightline announced a $45 million federally funded project to install 33 miles of pedestrian safety features, including fencing, improved signage, and raised pavement markers.

The plan is for the FRA to sign off on that and begin the improvements this year.

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