(The following article by J.D. Gallop was posted on the Florida Today website on August 21.)
VIERA, Fla. — A freight train conductor was killed Monday afternoon when a tractor-trailer and his eight-car train hauling gravel collided in an industrial area of Viera at an intersection without railroad crossing arms, officials said.
Kim Allen Rogers, 45, of Palm Bay was killed in the 1:45 p.m. accident near the intersection of Ansin and Nova roads, just west of U.S. 1, according to a report from the Florida Highway Patrol.
The truck driver, Norberto Silva, 57, of Palm Bay, was not injured. He was driving a 1994 GMC tractor-trailer that flipped onto its side during the collision with the Florida East Coast Railroad train.
Trooper said Allen was standing on a small platform on the back of the last train car communicating with the engineer as it backed in a westerly direction. There are no railroad signals, no crossing arms or stop signs in the northbound direction, the heading the truck was taking, troopers said.
“Communication was going fine between the conductor and the engineer,” Trooper Kim Miller said. “All of a sudden the conductor yelled for the engineer to stop.”
Miller said the back portion of the very last car struck the trailer of the truck.
Traffic along U.S. 1, which runs parallel to the railroad tracks, was not delayed long, because the accident was just west of it on a secondary, westbound railroad track instead of on the main U.S. 1 corridor, officials said.
The Florida Highway Patrol investigated the collision with deputies from the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and a crew from Brevard County Fire-Rescue.
The investigation is continuing. No changes had been filed Monday.