She said the agency doesn't require railroads to build walkways on trestles. LaRaye Brown, public affairs specialist with the Federal Railroad Administration, said that while the agency oversees management requirements, most railroad bridges belong to individual companies and she said it is the railroad's responsibility to inspect and maintain them. "We have been installing walkways for the safety of our train crews if they ever need to get off the locomotive and walk across the bridge." "Whenever FEC performs tie replacement and maintenance on our bridges," Ledoux wrote in an email when asked why the catwalk was built.
Greenberg said, though her family has lived in the home for almost 20 years, she never noticed workers installing it.ĭespite the timing of the walkway installation in Ormond Beach, Robert Ledoux, senior vice president and general counsel for Florida East Coast Railway, said the walkways alongside the trestles are created only for crews. “At least that's what they tell me.”Ī closer look at the Port Orange trestle shows a catwalk has also been installed there, though it is unclear when. “And some people trespass just to see the train,” she said.
Greenberg said she sees people fishing off of, and jumping off the trestle despite the shallow oyster beds below. Pointing to the graffiti on various spots on the trestle, she said, “You see kids on the tracks seasonally, when they run out of things to do.” She watched recently as several FEC Railway trains chugged by her dock on the creek. Mary Greenberg often calls local authorities to alert them to teens and adults traipsing through her property to get to the tracks and trestle behind her home on Spruce Creek in Port Orange. Other deaths, like Rob's, are preventable. Many of them were suspected suicides that railroad companies say they have limited opportunities to stop. That year, 13 people were injured or killed on train tracks here. The year that Rob was killed, 2016, was particularly hard on Volusia and Flagler county families. 2, a 51-year-old man was killed near Charles Street and George Engram Boulevard, police said, after he jumped in front of a northbound train.
It may have affected change to the very tracks where he was killed.īut despite public safety awareness efforts including suicide hotlines, warning signs and crossing enforcement, people who live near tracks and trestles say the no-trespassing markers are often ignored. It changed the life trajectory of his friends and his family. The teenager’s death rippled through the Ormond Beach community.
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