The firetruck demolished by a Brightline train in a Dec. 28 crash in downtown Delray Beach. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Ten fire department employees without valid driver’s licenses, city investigation finds
By John Pacenti
A suspended Delray Beach firefighter – who was at the wheel when a Brightline train crashed into his aerial firetruck on Dec. 28 – was ticketed in 2023 for careless driving after running over a median and crashing into a tree in a private vehicle, Palm Beach County court records show.
David Wyatt, 46, has been identified as the driver of the fire truck in the crash by the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, his name included in a traffic division log entry released on Jan. 8. The PBSO Traffic Division has been requested to review the incident and subsequent findings, the entry says.
Wyatt is one of four department employees suspended with pay by Fire Chief Ronald Martin as the investigation into the truck-train collision proceeds. Assistant Chief Kevin Green, Division Chief Todd Lynch and Captain Brian Fiorey were also placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation to determine if policies were followed leading up to the crash, Martin said.
Driver’s license concerns
In a related issue, Delray Beach City Attorney Lynn Gelin confirmed at the Jan. 7 City Commission meeting that 10 fire rescue employees have been found to have invalid driver’s licenses.
Martin on Jan. 3 directed every staff member to perform a driver’s license check and provide results to administrative staff. City spokeswoman Gina Carter did not respond to a question about how many of the 10 drove firetrucks or city vehicles.
In a Jan. 5 email to Vice Mayor Juli Casale, Martin said all three firefighters involved in the Brightline crash had valid driver’s licenses.
Video released from Brightline shows the firetruck — the length of four regular vehicles — maneuvering around a lowered railroad crossing gate before impact. The crash took place on the Florida East Coast Railway tracks on Southeast First Street a block south of Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach.
The firetruck was destroyed. The replacement cost for a similar aerial ladder fire truck is $2.3 million, according to a Dec. 31 email from Martin to commissioners. He recommended the city replace it with a smaller truck for $1.365 million.
The city has not addressed if the firefighters were responding to an emergency call. The accident sent the three firefighters aboard to the hospital and a dozen Brightline passengers.
'Careless driving’ cited in earlier crash
In the June 14, 2023, careless driving case, Wyatt needed to complete driving school to avoid penalties. He did not complete the course on time, leading the court to adjudicate him guilty that October, court records show.
That adjudication was then withheld, and a two-month-old D-6 license suspension lifted, in December 2023 after the court received verification that Wyatt had completed the required course. A D-6 is an indefinite suspension until certain conditions are met.
By having adjudication withheld, Wyatt did not get any points against his license that would lead to higher insurance rates. He paid $207 in fines and court costs.
The private vehicle crash occurred, according to the citation, around noon at the intersection of Atlantic and Swinton avenues. Wyatt was driving a 2015 Jeep.
“Went off the roadway and onto the median and struck tree and signs,” the citation reads.
Wyatt has also been cited for minor vehicular violations — such as speeding, expired tag — five times in Palm Beach County since 2004, records show.
Fallout causes tensions to rise
City Manager Terrence Moore sidestepped the question about fire staffers without valid driver’s licenses from Casale at the Jan. 7 commission meeting. It was only after Casale directed her question to Gelin that she got an answer.
“Mr. Moore owes residents the truth, and we are not getting it,” Casale told The Coastal Star.
At the Jan. 7 meeting, Casale said it was “unimaginable” that firefighters would not have valid driver’s licenses.
“At the end of the day, hundreds of people were on that train, including children that could have died,” she said.
Mayor Tom Carney sent a Jan. 8 email to Moore, expressing much of the same, saying a week after the accident there are more questions than answers.
“I understand that some information needs to be held confidential as the investigation continues, but there is so much that is considered public information (or would be deemed to be public information) which still has not been disseminated. This is causing the public to feel that they are not being told everything,” Carney told Moore.
Carney and fellow commissioners at the meeting the night before threw their support behind Martin after the firefighter’s union went on Facebook attacking him after the chief announced the suspensions on Jan. 3.
Delray Beach Fire Fighters IAFF Local 1842 said that Martin failed to follow departmental policies — spelled out for employee discipline — by publicly sharing the names of those suspended.
“This public dissemination of information causes significant harm to the employees involved, damages their reputations, and undermines trust in the City’s internal processes,” the union posted on its own Facebook page.
Martin issued a response, saying that he wanted to ensure that the investigations would be conducted with fairness toward the employees involved.
Casale told The Coastal Star, “Sadly we are seeing the effects of an all-powerful union that has built a lack of accountability into the fire union contract.”
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