Photo: CBS 12
Just as Brightline started its expansion to Orlando on Friday, there was a fatal crash involving one of the company's trains.
Delray Beach Police say that just after 7 a.m., a Brightline train hit a trespasser on the tracks at Southeast 2nd Avenue and Southeast 4th Street.
It was not the train that was part of the inaugural ride from Miami to Central Florida.
The one involved in the crash was a southbound train and the passengers on it boarded the northbound inaugural train. The inaugural train then went south to Boca Raton and was held there for a time.
It has since arrived in Orlando to fanfare.
A Delray Beach Police spokesman says the death appears to have been a suicide. That is the situation in almost all cases involving people on the tracks, according to law enforcement. The incidents involving vehicles and Brightline trains are most often caused by drivers attempting to 'beat the train.'
The high-speed rail line has been spreading safety messages to pedestrians and drivers who live along the corridor, even asking them to sign a 'Safety Pledge.'