JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Jacksonville man is accused of vehicular homicide following a truck vs. train crash four years ago that killed his passenger.
Richard Tillman, 45, was taken into custody Thursday night.
Investigators said Tillman drove across the railroad tracks when the crossing guards were down and the lights were flashing. His passenger died when the train collided with his truck.
It happened on the night of Aug. 18, 2017, on Cooks Lane just south of Orange Avenue in Green Cove Springs.
Tillman was taken to the hospital in critical condition and his passenger, 38-year old Caleb Osborne, died at the scene.
At the time, Florida Highway Patrol said it appeared Tillman drove around railroad crossing arms in an attempt to beat an Amtrak train that was carrying more than 200 passengers. Years later, after Tillman had healed from his injuries, he was arrested and charged with vehicular homicide.
News4Jax crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson says in the eyes of law enforcement, Tillman was responsible for Osborne’s death.
“The fact that he went around a railroad crossing arm and was hit by a train shows that he was negligent,” Jefferson said.
Not only was Tillman considered negligent, at the time of the crash, he was not legally allowed to drive because his license had been suspended. Court records show Tillman has a history of being pulled over and had been either cited or arrested for driving on a suspended license.
Given that he was illegally behind the wheel and still chose to allegedly disregard a railroad crossing arm that led to his passenger dying, Jefferson believes prosecutors are unlikely to cut Tillman any slack.
“A lot of times, prosecutors want to make an example out of people who commit these kinds of incidents. This other person would have been alive had he not gone through that arm which caused his death,” Jefferson said.
Osborne’s family lives in North Carolina. News4Jax was not able to get into contact with them, but according to a pastor who knows the family, Osborne was a missionary who spent a considerable amount of time in the Philippines. The pastor also wrote in a Facebook post that Osborn left behind two children.
As of Friday, Tillman remains in the Clay County jail on a $105,000 bond.
“People take chances every day on that and figure they can judge the speed of the train, They can see it coming, They can hear it coming and they will still try to dart through there. But, you find yourself at fault when you misjudge the speed of that train,” Jefferson said.
Just last week in Hilliard, a 38-year-old woman was killed when investigators say she ignored the railroad crossing arm and signals and continued to drive across the tracks.
Last November, a driver was killed in Jacksonville when police say the driver ignored the crossing signal and drove around ramp stops as an Amtrak train was approaching.
Even more disturbing is the fact that according to the most recent data from Operation Lifesaver, Florida ranks No. 3 in the nation behind Texas and California when it comes to railroad crossing crashes and fatalities.
And according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, a motorist is 20-times more likely to die from a crash involving a train than another vehicle on the road.