Woman killed fleeing Ill. train derailment, blast

ROCKFORD, Ill. – Railroad tank cars holding thousands of gallons of highly flammable ethanol derailed and exploded in flames, killing a 41-year-old woman as she tried to run to safety from a car stopped at a crossing.

Three other people from the same car escaped with severe burns. Hundreds of people were evacuated from homes near the explosion.

Eighteen tank cars, all filled with ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, derailed Friday on the edge of Rockford, about 80 miles northwest of Chicago.

The wreckage burned through the night, but the fire was extinguished by Saturday evening, leaving a blackened collection of rail cars piled on top of one another.

Railroad investigator Stephen Klejst, of the National Transportation Safety Board, said Saturday the train’s event recorder, similar to a plane’s black box, has been recovered. The train was traveling at 34 mph at the time of the incident, below the track speed limit of 50 mph, he said.

National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Robert Sumwalt said investigators wouldn’t speculate about what may have caused the derailment. A thorough investigation could take a year, he said.

Investigators will look into the train crew’s performance, the train’s mechanical components, signals, the integrity of the cars containing ethanol and the emergency response, Sumwalt said.

Weather is one of the factors investigators will be considering as they try to determine a cause, Klejst said. The tracks had been inspected Friday, and no problems were detected, he said.

The woman who was killed – Zoila Tellez, 41, of Rockford – had escaped from her stopped automobile, but she managed to get only 20 feet away before she fell and died, Winnebago County Coroner Sue Fiduccia said.

Three people with the woman also ran from the car when it was bombarded with flying railroad ties and they were severely burned by flaming ethanol, Rockford Fire Chief Derek Bergsten said. They were taken to OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in serious to critical condition, and one was transferred to Stroger Hospital in Chicago, he said.

Officials evacuated about 600 homes in the area on the edge of Rockford on Friday night amid concerns about air pollution.

All residents were allowed to return Saturday evening, and many milled around the scene taking pictures of the wreckage with their phones or cameras.