About 8:36 p.m., central daylight time, on Friday, June 19, 2009, eastbound Canadian National Railway Company (CN) freight train U70691-18 (the accident train) derailed at a highway/rail grade crossing in Cherry Valley, Illinois. The train consisted of 2 locomotives and 114 cars, 19 of which derailed. All of the derailed cars were tank cars carrying denatured fuel ethanol, a flammable liquid. Thirteen of the derailed tank cars were breached or lost product and caught fire. At the time of the derailment, several motor vehicles were stopped on either side of the grade crossing waiting for the train to pass. As a result of the fire that erupted after the derailment, a passenger in one of the stopped cars was fatally injured, two passengers in the same car received serious injuries, and five occupants of other cars waiting at the highway/rail crossing were also injured. Two responding firefighters also sustained minor injuries. The release of ethanol and the resulting fire prompted a mandatory evacuation of about 600 residences within a 1/2-mile radius of the accident site. Monetary damages were estimated to total $7.9 million.
We determined that the probable cause of the accident was the washout of the track structure that was discovered about 1 hour before the train‘s arrival, and the Canadian National Railway Company‘s (CN) failure to notify the train crew of the known washout in time to stop the train because of the inadequacy of the CN‘s emergency communication procedures. Contributing to the accident was the CN‘s failure to work with Winnebago County to develop a comprehensive storm water management design to address the previous washouts in 2006 and 2007. Contributing to the severity of the accident was the CN‘s failure to issue the flash flood warning to the train crew and the inadequate design of the DOT-111 tank cars, which made the cars subject to damage and catastrophic loss of hazardous materials during the derailment.
We made recommendations to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, Association of American Railroads, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the National Association of County Engineers, the American Public Works Association, and the Institute of Transportation Engineers, National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties, the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, the National Association of Towns and Townships, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and the Canadian National Railway Company.
