Plano man cited after unoccupied car found on DeKalb County train tracks

A Plano man was cited for leaving the scene of a crash and driving while his license was revoked after DeKalb County sheriff’s deputies found an unoccupied vehicle on the train tracks north of Somonauk, officials said.

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office responded at 10:22 p.m. Thursday to the 500 block of Somonauk Road after the report of a crash with injuries, according to a news release.

An off-duty Kane County sheriff’s deputy alerted law enforcement Thursday evening to the crash when he spotted the vehicle left on railroad tracks north of Somonauk, DeKalb County Chief Deputy Sheriff Jim Burgh said.

The vehicle – which was removed from the railroad tracks about midnight Thursday – was unoccupied when deputies arrived, and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office launched a drone Saturday night in an attempt to look for the driver, Burgh said.

“There were trains coming. Thankfully, they got ahold of the railroad soon enough to get all traffic on the tracks stopped,” Burgh said, noting that the headlight of an oncoming train could be seen while law enforcement were at the scene.

A man called the sheriff’s office that night to say he was the driver, Burgh said, adding that drivers should alert law enforcement when they’ve been in a crash, even if it involves only a single vehicle.

They should “make sure to let us know their status because we’re searching the fields not knowing if we have someone who walked away injured and maybe passed out,” Burgh said.

The crash occurred when the vehicle, a 2012 Ford Fusion, had gone through a field and struck an embankment that flanks both sides of the railroad, Burgh said.

“As you kind of come across the field, you get that slow incline with the gravel up toward the [railroad] track, and he ended up on the track,” Burgh said, explaining how the Ford sustained front-end damage.

Deputies met the man in Plano, where the Little Rock-Fox Fire Department treated him for a possible head injury from the crash, according to the release. Burgh said he did not have an update on the injury.