Published: December 26, 2008 09:11 am      

Broken rail reportedly led to derailment

By KANDACE MCCOY

kandace.mccoy@register-news.com

BONNIE — A broken rail has been reported as the cause of a train derailment which occurred Sunday night just north of Bonnie.

During Monday night’s county board meeting, Jefferson County Sheriff Roger Mulch reported that a broken rail may have caused the derailment.

“With windchill included, after 10 hours in sub zero weather such as we had Sunday, if there are any stressed rails, they can break,” Mulch reported to the board on information he received from a Union Pacific engineer.

Two of 11 derailed cars fell onto Illinois Highway 37 shortly after 9 p.m. Sunday, and of those cars, eight were empty, while two were filled with sand, according to Mark Davis of the Union Pacific Railroad. No injuries were reported during the accident.

“Thank God this happened after 9 p.m. on a Sunday night, not at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning,” Mulch said at the scene, where Illinois State Police, deputies, Bonnie Police, Ina Police, Litton Ambulance and Jefferson Fire Protection District personnel worked to divert traffic and mitigate the scene.

According to Davis, the train was traveling from Chicago to Pine Bluff, Ark. Two locomotives were moving 69 railcars when the accident occurred. Davis said the derailment damaged 400 feet of track along with rail ties on a 44-foot long bridge. Upon inspecting the bridge, Union Pacific officials stated the bridge was not damaged, except for the railroad ties.

Illinois Highway 37 remained closed until about noon on Tuesday. After clearing all cars from the track bed, workers leveled the track bed and Union Pacific rebuilt the track, replacing the damaged ties, and the track was reopened Monday evening.