Dump truck triggers SunRail wreck in Winter Park

A SunRail train struck yet another vehicle – this time in Winter Park – last Thursday in an incident that may have caused the most damage yet since the rail line’s inception.

Sanford resident and truck driver Julio Scioville had parked his dump truck near the tracks that morning in the midst of a construction job when a SunRail train struck the back left corner of the truck.

The collision behind the former Thomas Lumber property along Orange Avenue caused damage to the front right corner of the train and injured at least 10 people onboard, according to a report from the Winter Park Police Department.

The train heading south from Debary was carrying roughly 150 passengers, according to the Florida Department of Transportation.

“The driver saw that the train was coming and tried to move the truck,” said Lt. Pam Marcum of the Winter Park Police Department. “Obviously he couldn’t get out of the way fast enough.”

Scioville told police that he parked near the tracks because there were two dumpsters blocking him from parking elsewhere. He has since been charged with parking within 50 feet of a railroad track.

“It is a safe mode of transportation; we believe the trains are safe,” said Steve Olson, spokesperson for the Florida Department of Transportation, following the incident. “We have to have buy-in from the public that’s out there and other vehicles doing the right thing, that they’re not in the railroad crossings or they’re not too close to the right of way.”

But last Thursday’s collision wasn’t the first to occur in the alley adjacent to Orange Avenue. Another crash happened in that same area last year when an Amtrak train struck the back of a gray Hyundai Sonata parked near the tracks.

Of the nine SunRail incidents that have involved a vehicle and SunRail train, each of the crashes resulted from the vehicle being on or near the tracks when a train was passing by, including a woman in Maitland who was learning to drive stick shift in her two-door black Infiniti and stalled on the tracks last May. The woman was able to jump out of her car before the SunRail train hit.

“It’s frightening … I’m sure there are other people like me, thinking they can make it through because traffic’s moving, but then it stops and you’re stuck,” Maitland Councilwoman Bev Reponen told the Observer last May. “It’s an unreal situation, and I’m afraid some people are going to sit there and panic.”

Seven of the passengers injured last Thursday were transported to a local hospital to have their injuries treated.