New details are emerging into what may have caused Friday night's deadly train derailment in southeast Rockford. 23 News reporter Alice Barr sat down with Winnebago County Sheriff Dick Meyers to find out how the department responded when they started getting warnings before the disaster that the tracks were washed out. When disaster struck Friday night Winnebago County Sheriff's deputies were among the first emergency responders on the scene. But the department's involvement began about an hour before the Canadian National freight train derailed and exploded. That's when the county's 911 center started getting calls that heavy rains had washed the ground out from under the railroad tracks east of Mulford road. Nearby resident Charles Addis was one of four callers. "I called 911 at like 7:56 and told them don't send a train down the tracks cause they're washed out," Addis said.
"We got information that there was a washout at that area, that information was not sat on, it was acted on immediately," Meyers said.
Sheriff Meyers says a Winnebago county dispatcher called and warned both Canadian National and Union Pacific which also has rail lines running through the accident scene. The county then sent sheriff's deputies to evaluate the tracks.
"We did get a video of the condition of the tracks, within minutes prior to the train coming," Meyers said.
The national transportation safety board is now holding that video as evidence but Sheriff Meyers says it clearly shows a washout.
"There's a section of suspended track."
Meyers says Canadian National was aware of the washout about 24 minutes before the accident and he says that was plenty of time to stop the oncoming train.
"We can't stop that train. We can simply notify people that it needs to be stopped. The notifications that had to have been made were made properly, it was made in plenty of time. This issue's not with the response locally, it's with what the rail companies did to stop their trains or didn't do," Meyers said.
Sheriff Meyers says Canadian National called the sheriff's department back to ask for more information several minutes after they were first notified at that time CN said they had crews on the way to check out the tracks. CN denied comment.