Boca Raton Personal Injury Lawyers Blog | Ellis, Ged & Bodden P.A.

The lights started flashing. The gates lowered. A gold Toyota Camry drove onto the tracks. Thirty seconds later a 325-ton Tri-Rail commuter train barreled through the crossing at 60 mph. The northbound train with 250 passengers aboard plowed into the car on Commercial Boulevard just west of Interstate 95, dragging it about 60 feet as Thursday morning's rush hour ended. The driver, Connie Hamblin, 44, and Felicia Hatmaker, 22, both of Tennessee, were thrown from the sedan and pronounced dead at the scene, said Fort Lauderdale police spokeswoman Detective Katherine Collins. Another passenger, Eddie Hamblin, also of Tennessee, was taken to North Broward Medical Center in Deerfield Beach, where he was listed in critical but stable condition. His age and relationship to the women was not known Thursday. The crossing has just about every safety measure available, spurred by the fiery 1993 wreck in which six people were incinerated on Cypress Creek Road west of I-95 when an Amtrak train slammed into a gasoline tanker trapped on the tracks. Officials say the only way to make the Commercial Boulevard crossing safer is to build a bridge over the tracks or closing it to drivers. Neither is feasible or practical.

Medians were raised to prevent drivers from skirting the gates. Flashing signs warn drivers not to stop on the tracks. Yet that is what Hamblin did as the crossing arms lowered and the lights flashed, said George Moreno, 45, who was a few cars behind the Camry when the crash happened about 8:45 a.m. Instead of crossing to the other side, the driver backed up and hit the crossing arm behind her, Moreno said. She then hit the gas pedal and lurched forward just as the northbound train roared through. ``It was the most horrific thing you'll ever see,'' Moreno said. ``In the blink of an eye, [the car] was gone.'' A couple who witnessed the crash ran from their car to the mangled Toyota that had flipped over and come to rest next to the tracks. Brandon Williams, 22, of Lauderdale Lakes, called police and knelt by one of the two women thrown from the car. ``She was still breathing. I tried to talk to her, tell her everything was OK,'' said Williams, whose pants were stained with blood. ``She was gasping. She was really, really trying to breathe. There was nothing I really could do.'' Around him, other motorists and witnesses were screaming.

Williams' fiancée, Matia Hughes, 23, ran to the other woman lying next to the car and prayed. The young woman died in front of her, she said. ``I just broke down crying,'' said Hughes, of Lauderdale Lakes. ``I feel like I should have done more.'' The crash halted all passenger and freight trains in the area for about four hours. The tracks reopened at 12:33 p.m. The crossing sits between two busy intersections -- Powerline Road to the west and the southbound I-95 on- and off-ramps to the east. When the traffic lights turn red, especially at rush hour, traffic often backs up onto the crossing in both directions. At least two experiments to address the problem either haven't worked out or haven't been carried out completely. In 2000, the Florida Department of Transportation tested a concept called a ``European X'' -- a box about the size of a car with an X painted on the roadway just beyond the crossing in each traffic lane. If drivers could see the X as they approached the crossing, they had enough room to pull across safely.

The pavement markings are no longer there, and no one at the department Thursday could recall the results of the experiment. The department also announced plans to install cameras at the crossing and at McNab Road, Cypress Creek Road, Powerline Road and Prospect Road. The cameras were designed to send an instant signal to the train operator to slow down if a motorist is stalled. But train operators balked over the liability. Since Tri-Rail began service in 1989, there have been seven car-train accidents at the Commercial Boulevard Tri-Rail crossing, killing three people and injuring two, according to Tri-Rail records. Six accidents involved Tri-Rail and one involved Amtrak. Before Thursday's accident, only one person had died at the crossing. Police are asking anyone with information about Thursday's crash to call Fort Lauderdale Police Traffic Homicide Investigator Cheri Creque at 954-828-5825.

If you or a loved one has been the victim of personal injury in any of the firm’s specialized legal areas listed above, you may have a valid legal claim and be entitled to monetary damages. Please contact one of our experienced and dedicated personal injury attorneys at Ellis, Ged & Bodden, P.A. today for a free consultation.