Brightline is a new high-speed passenger rail service that recently began serving West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale commuters in 2018—it is also a train that has been striking people at an alarming rate with more than one encounter ending in death.

While the train has only been officially running since January 13, 2018, there have already been multiple accidents. On January 17^th, Jeffrey D. King was on a bicycle when he was struck and killed by a train traveling at 78 mph, according to Boynton Beach police. A 55-year-old man suffered a broken leg, arm and pelvis after a train collided with him on January 19^th. A pedestrian was injured in Wilton Manors on February 8^th, but was able to walk away. A car was damaged in Boca Raton on February 14^th. On March 11^th, a man standing on the tracks was struck and killed in West Palm Beach.

Even more astonishing, there were three pedestrians struck by the train while still in limited testing—a Boynton Beach woman (Melissa Lavell) was killed just prior to the commencement of full operations, a Deerfield Beach woman was hit and injured in November, and a Boca Raton woman was hit as far back as July 2017.

While Brightline—the only privately owned and operated passenger railroad in the U.S.—has emphasized cooperation with local authorities and stressed their adherence to any local rules and laws concerning areas around active railroads, one must wonder if enough is being done to ensure safe operation of this new type of high-speed train. In response, train officials stepped up safety measures; including efforts to inform the community and warn pedestrians that the new train travels much faster than others. But is this enough? It’s important to note that the West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale route is the company’s first operation, but they propose to quickly expand first to Miami and then later to Orlando.

But their plans are not without opposition; at least until the company demonstrates that they can conduct business safely and responsibly. Both of Florida’s U.S. senators, Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) have requested a federal safety review of the operation, while Rep. Brian Mast (R-Palm City) called for Brightline to suspend all operations until its “safety flaws” are fixed. Additionally, Mast made the following plea to the company, “stop victim blaming and take responsibility for the fact that your trains are killing people.”