MELBOURNE, Fla. — Melbourne Police and investigators from Florida East Coast Railways are still investigating Friday’s deadly train collision that left one motorist dead, Florida Today reports.
Melbourne police said 36-year-old Christopher Coffman of Melbourne died about an hour after a southbound FEC train, No. 101, hit the front of Coffman’s Pontiac Firebird as he drove westbound on Parkway Drive.
Police did not release any other details regarding the victim.
The force of the collision scattered parts of the car over 200 yards along the east side of the track and threw the car about 50 feet south onto a grassy area. The hood and other pieces littered the roadway.
Parkway Drive and Post Road were closed to traffic for several hours while police interviewed witnesses and investigated the scene.
Police and witnesses said the train blared its horn before crossing Parkway Drive, but one witness said the railway’s crossing gate arm might have malfunctioned as Coffman’s car approached the tracks.
“When I heard the car skid and came around to see what happened, the gate was coming down again,” said Waugh, a nearby resident, who added that the gate has occasionally come down even when no trains are oncoming. “The gate was still coming down when the car was hit.”
But other witnesses had said the gate had been operating properly.
The train was on its way from Jacksonville to Miami delivering goods to be shipped overseas.