All Aboard plan is a health hazard

I practice internal medicine in Jupiter. My office is one block from the railroad crossing and three blocks from Jupiter Medical Center.

Numerous sick patients pass through this area when going to and from Jupiter Medical as well as to and from my office and the many other medical offices around here.

I have seen, on numerous occasions, ambulance delays because the train was passing. Many of my sick patients have had problems reaching my office because of those delays. Critically ill patients have been delayed, lying in the ambulance, waiting for the train to pass. Fortunately, those delays don’t occur that often.

But if the All Aboard Florida plan succeeds, the much higher frequency of delays will adversely affect, without any doubt, many sick and possibly critically ill patients. Why? To enrich a few and hurt so many?

I could be in that ambulance one day. You could be in that ambulance. One of your dearest relatives could be in that ambulance.

Look at the map: South of my office is Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center and, later, St. Mary’s Medical Center. Both take care of acute cardiac patients and trauma patients, and for those patients, every second is precious.

The All Aboard Florida train system will impair the rapid flow of ambulances, critically ill patients, police, doctors, etc., because these hospitals are just a few blocks from the tracks.

Allowing this train idea to succeed is like allowing possible tragedies. What do you call a product that may jeopardize the health of people? A health hazard.