A 38-year-old bicyclist was killed by a Tri-Rail train at a railroad crossing in Palm Beach County, Florida, on Friday morning. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office identified him as Ulisses Ricardo Aponte of Coconut Creek, CBS12 reported.
The crash happened around 7:47 a.m. in the 3000 block of Lake Worth Road. Aponte was riding his bicycle toward the tracks as a northbound train was departing the station. A second train, traveling southbound, was arriving at the terminal at the same time. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Deputies said Aponte appeared to enter the crossing once the departing train’s tail end cleared the tracks, without ever seeing the southbound train pulling in. All of the crossing’s safety equipment was working, according to the Sheriff’s Office, including the gate arms, bells, and both solid and flashing red lights, and the arriving train’s horn was sounding. The train’s engineer, identified as Fred Dassau of Pompano Beach, was not hurt.
The Sheriff’s Office said Aponte’s next of kin has been notified. Deputies said the crash was the 56th traffic fatality the agency had investigated this year. There’s no explanation as to what happened beyond a simple error.
How a Second Train Can Hide an Oncoming One
The circumstances deputies described point to one of the more dangerous situations at a rail crossing, when a second train is masked by the first. A departing or passing train can block a person’s view of another train coming on an adjacent track, and the noise of the first can cover the sound of the second. Federal rail safety officials warn that at any crossing with more than one track, a train can be followed immediately by another on a parallel track moving in either direction.
That risk is why the standard guidance is to treat a cleared crossing with caution rather than relief. A crossing’s gates, lights, and bells are designed to keep activating while any train is present, and here the Sheriff’s Office said all of them were operating and the horn was sounding when Aponte entered. The account investigators gave, of a cyclist proceeding after one train passed and not seeing the second, is the exact scenario multi-track crossings are known for.
The Lake Worth Beach Crossing’s History
The Lake Worth Beach station sits where Lake Worth Road meets Interstate 95, and it has been a site of serious crashes before. In January 2016, a Tri-Rail train derailed at the crossing after hitting a garbage truck that had broken down on the tracks, injuring 22 people. The station opened in 1989 and carries two tracks, the configuration at the center of Friday’s crash.
Rail crossings along this corridor have a documented safety record worth noting. Florida has consistently ranked among the states with the most rail-crossing collisions, and the tracks through Palm Beach County carry both Tri-Rail commuter service and freight traffic.
The crossing where Aponte died had its warning systems active and functioning, according to investigators, which shifts the focus of the inquiry toward how the collision happened despite them rather than toward any equipment failure.