The destroyed Delray Beach fire truck after being hit by a Brightline commuter train Dec. 28. The fire truck's driver, who was cited for failing to use due care, is being investigated by the city in the incident and for another matter a year earlier when he was working for the fire department while having a suspended driver's license. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Two chiefs, suspended after collision, cleared in related investigation
Related: City approves $1.4 million fire truck replacement using lease purchase
By John Pacenti
Delray Beach firefighter David Wyatt — at the wheel when a Brightline train struck his city fire truck on Dec. 28 — remained on regular duty a year earlier when his driver’s license was suspended following an off-duty crash, according to an independent report.
Wyatt in February was cited in the Brightline crash for failing to use due care for not observing the oncoming train.
A December video from the Brightline train shows the 104-foot aerial ladder truck driven by Wyatt maneuvering around lowered railroad crossing gates on Southeast First Street, a block south of Atlantic Avenue downtown. The train mangled the enormous vehicle into three pieces and sent the three-person crew — as well as several train passengers — to the hospital.
Soon after the crash, the question of how the city tracks valid driver’s licenses within the department became the subject of an investigation conducted by a private firm, Johnson Jackson PLLC. While Wyatt’s license was valid at the time of the crash, its earlier suspension had come to light.
The report found that the department’s review process for driver’s licenses was flawed and that an assistant fire chief and division chief who were suspended with pay on the issue were not at fault for how they handled 10 employees who have had suspended driver’s licenses in the recent past.
“Roster reports” received by The Coastal Star for the period Oct. 10, 2023, to Dec. 8, 2023, when Wyatt’s license was suspended after he failed to take a required driving class to resolve his careless driving ticket, show he clocked in as a “driver/engineer” 20 times during that time for a 24-hour shift.
The Johnson Jackson report — released Feb. 25 — confirmed Wyatt drove for the city while his license was suspended, violating city policy.
“He should have taken leave to address the suspension rather than ignoring it and continuing to work,” stated the report written by Erin Jackson, a founding shareholder of the labor law firm.
Furthermore, Wyatt told the investigator that he was unaware of the suspension until January, after the Brightline crash.
However, documentation, timing, and Wyatt’s actions indicate that he was aware of the suspension in December 2023, the report stated.
Wyatt’s response “raises question(s) as to his credibility on this issue,” the report stated. Wyatt did tell the investigator he failed to take the required driver’s education class, saying he was “just being lazy and forgetting.”
New developments
Other February developments stemming from the Brightline collision include:
• The city agreed to purchase a new fire truck for $1.4 million with a shorter, 75-foot ladder than the vehicle struck by the train.
• Delray Beach is petitioning Florida East Coast Railway to install full quad gates at three railroad crossings in the city that don’t have them, which would prevent the possibility of someone trying to go around lowered crossing gates.
• Commissioner Rob Long said at the Feb. 18 commission meeting he plans to inspect every railway crossing in the city with a team of experts “to establish if there are certain safety measures that we can do.”
• The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office released its report looking into the crash. It showed that Wyatt had no recollection of the crash when questioned.
Dispatch audio recordings from Dec. 28 show Wyatt’s Battalion 111 responding to a call where smoke was reported on the second story of a condo building at 365 SE Sixth Ave.
The PBSO report said a review of the recordings showed that the unit had been cleared from a call reporting a high-rise fire, but only after the crash occurred.
Another crew on the scene reports that the smoke was caused by burnt food. One minute later, the dispatcher reports the crash.
Two of the three firefighters on the fire truck at the time of the crash — Wyatt and Capt. Brian Fiorey — were placed on paid administrative leave shortly after the crash “pending results of an administrative investigation.”
Two others — Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Green and Division Chief Todd Lynch — were not on the truck but were also placed on paid administrative leave. Green and Lynch, according to the report, were suspended over the issue of failing to properly track suspended driver’s licenses in the department. The report concluded that the duty was not part of Green’s job and that Lynch had not received proper training.
Lynch took to Facebook on Feb. 24 to post on the firefighters union page, lambasting the city for publicizing his suspension, calling it “humiliating and embarrassing.” “This impugned my character,” he wrote.
Lynch returned to division chief duty Feb. 25, but will soon move to being a battalion chief because of an earlier request. Green retired on Feb. 25.
Wyatt and Fiorey remain suspended.
2023 incident
Wyatt’s June 9, 2023, ticket was issued after he took a corner at Swinton and Atlantic avenues too fast, jumped a median in his Jeep, and struck a tree. Police investigated Wyatt for a possible DUI but said in a report that obtaining a breathalyzer or a blood test was unfeasible because the firefighter had been transported to a hospital.
At the Feb. 4 City Commission meeting, resident Sean Thomas Wright demanded that Police Chief Russ Mager be fired for his department’s failure to do a thorough DUI investigation at the time.
“It looks like the Police Department went out of their way to not do a drug test, to not do a field sobriety test. How do you explain that?” Wright said during the time for the public to address the commission.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin told commissioners that in a review subsequent to the Brightline crash, the city found 10 current fire rescue employees also had driving licenses that were suspended for a period of time.
The Johnson Jackson investigation found that firefighter Lt. Calvin Smith operated a “department apparatus without a valid license for an extended period” — from June 3, 2022, to March 30, 2023 — but he took corrective action upon discovering the issue. The suspension was due to a lapse in insurance that he was unaware of, Smith told investigators.
Other employees with suspended driver’s licenses also demonstrated intent to comply with the policy once they became aware of the status, the Johnson Jackson report stated.
Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney praised Ronald Martin, the new fire chief, for his handling of the crisis, including engaging an outside firm to conduct the administrative investigations.
“We need to allow the investigative process to run its course,” Carney said.
“This process will take time, but I have and will stay focused on transparency, accountability, and doing what’s best for Delray Beach.”
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