(The following story by Don Hopey appeared on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette website on March 24.)
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — Criminal charges have been filed against the engineer of a speeding freight train that derailed going down a treacherous stretch of track off Keating Summit in rural McKean County last June, resulting in a chemical spill that polluted 30 miles of pristine streams and killed thousands of fish.
The engineer, Michael Seifert, 45, of West Seneca, N.Y., tested positive for opiates and an anti-anxiety drug following the accident, according to the criminal complaint filed yesterday and the official Federal Railroad Administration report.
Mr. Seifert was charged with two felony counts of risking a catastrophe and recklessly endangering another person, a second-degree misdemeanor. McKean County District Attorney John Pavlock, who filed the charges, said his investigation into the accident remains open and additional charges are possible against others involved.
An affidavit of probable cause said Mr. Seifert was “under the influence of controlled substances” at the time of the derailment. And the federal accident report, obtained by the Post-Gazette through a Freedom of Information Act request, states that the engineer’s “recent or chronic use of unauthorized opiates and benzodiazepines may have contributed to the accident.”
According to the seven-page accident report, the half-mile-long Norfolk Southern freight had been speeding on its way from Buffalo to Scranton June 30, and was traveling 76 mph when 32 of its 46 freight cars jumped the track. The speed limit on the extreme downhill grade is 15 mph.
Three tank cars ruptured, spilling 42,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide, also known as caustic soda or lye, into Big Fill Run and Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek, and Driftwood Branch.
All aquatic life was killed in the first eight miles of Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek and dead trout, bass, carp, catfish, sunfish and suckers were found throughout more than 30 miles of the streams in McKean and Cameron counties, 120 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.
The federal report did not specify the illicit drugs detected in the blood and urine of the engineer, and the FRA would not elaborate. The general effects of opiates — a group of drugs that includes opium, codeine, morphine and heroin — include sedation and slowed reflexes. The “benzos” are psychoactive drugs considered minor tranquilizers, and when legally used can treat anxiety, insomnia, seizures and muscle spasms.
Mr. Seifert was a resident of West Seneca, N.Y., near Buffalo, at the time of the derailment. He moved several months ago and could not be reached for comment.
The drug test was negative for the only other train crew member, conductor Stevan V. Rogers, 36, of Buffalo, who recently had been promoted to the position and had worked for the railroad for eight months.
According to Rudy Husband, a Norfolk Southern spokesman, all railroad operating personnel are subject to random drug testing, but those tests are not performed when trainmen report for daily duty.
Both men were dismissed by Norfolk Southern shortly after the accident. The dismissals were appealed by Mr. Seifert and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, and also by Mr. Rogers and his union, the United Transportation Union. Hearings on the appeals have not been scheduled.
Cole Davis, a BLET general chairman who is representing Mr. Seifert in his dismissal appeal, said his client was fired for operating his train too fast and nothing was said in the dismissal hearing about his client’s use of any drugs.
“I know nothing about any positive test for drugs,” Mr. Davis said. “And I’m sure if he had done that the railroad would have been obligated to charge him with it.”
According to the report, the two-man crew failed to apply air brakes as required when the train crested Keating Summit shortly after 8:30 a.m. that Sunday, “which allowed train speed to increase rapidly beyond safe and posted track speeds.”
The report found that the crew also failed to immediately apply an emergency braking system as required when the train exceeded the maximum authorized speed by more than 5 mph through nine curves on the 2.6 grade from Keating Summit. The “2.6 grade” means a 2.6-foot drop in 100 feet of track — the second-steepest grade in the state.
The derailment ripped up 1,400 feet of track and cost Norfolk Southern more than $2 million in equipment and freight losses.
Neither the engineer nor the conductor was injured. Up to 40 nearby residents were evacuated as a precaution because one of the derailed tank cars contained chlorine, a poison inhalation hazard. It did not rupture.
But the derailment caused massive environmental damage in the fishing streams, adjacent wetlands and groundwater that will take years to repair and recover. The state Department of Environmental Protection has levied civil penalties totaling $8.9 million against Norfolk Southern, and ordered the railroad to conduct a massive cleanup of the site, which is continuing.
In addition to those penalties, which Norfolk Southern has appealed to the state Environmental Hearing Board, the DEP also may seek stream damage penalties under the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act.
Freda Tarbell, a DEP spokeswoman, said the railroad is continuing to do emergency, interim cleanup of the derailment site and was recently granted an extension until May 18 to complete that phase. She said Norfolk Southern must submit an environmental assessment report by April 30 to identify groundwater contamination at the site and in the 11 miles down Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek to the Driftwood Branch.