Pedestrian killed by Brightline train in South Florida

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - A man was killed Friday after being hit by a higher-speed passenger rail train in South Florida.

The pedestrian was hit by the Brightline train as he crossed a track in West Palm Beach, even though the track’s gates were down, police said.

West Palm Beach police officials had no further information, according to the Palm Beach Post.

Since mid-2017, more than 40 people have been killed by Brightline trains - a rate of more than one a month and about one for every 29,000 miles (47,000 kilometers) the trains have traveled, according to an analysis of Federal Railroad Administration data by The Associated Press.

That’s the worst per-mile death rate of the nation’s 821 railroads.

None of Brightline’s deaths were caused by crew error or faulty equipment. The majority have been suicides, while most others involved impatient motorists, pedestrians or bicyclists who misjudged the trains’ speed and ignored bells, gates or other warnings, according to law enforcement and federal reports.