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Engineer in 2006 derailment sentenced to a year in county jail
By MARCIE SCHELLHAMMER
Era Reporter
marcie@bradfordera.com
SMETHPORT — The engineer of the Norfolk Southern train that derailed June 30, 2006, pleaded guilty Monday in McKean County Court to causing a catastrophe and improperly disposing of hazardous waste, and will serve nearly a year in jail.
Michael Seifert, 47, of Buffalo, N.Y., was sentenced to one year minus one day to two years minus two days in McKean County Jail. He was also given credit for 18 days of time served and ordered to perform 600 hours of community service.
The structure of the sentence, which is in accordance with the plea agreement in the case, ensures that Seifert will serve his incarceration in McKean County Jail in Smethport rather than in state prison.
Monday’s hearing was before Judge H. William White of Venango County, who read the factual basis for the plea to Seifert.
“You recklessly operated the train in such a manner that you brought about the crash of the train and risk to people,” White said.
“Yes, sir,” Seifert responded.
“You disposed of sodium hydroxide in violation of the law” and without the permission of the Department of Environmental Protection, White said.
“Yes,” Seifert responded.
Seifert was questioned further by defense counsel Rick Hernan and prosecutors John Pavlock, district attorney, and Glenn Parno, chief deputy attorney general.
Seifert agreed that he was the engineer of the train and was in fact involved with establishing a speed limit of 15 miles per hour on Keating Summit — the hill where he later lost control of the train, leading to the derailment.
The prosecutors said the drugs in Seifert’s system contributed to the derailment; Hernan said fatigue and drug use have the same symptoms.
Pavlock then referred to a doctor’s report which said the drugs found in Seifert’s system, according to a toxicology report after the accident, “may have been a possible contributing cause to the event.”
Seifert agreed that was the doctor’s finding.
Seifert also agreed that he did not comply with the speed limit that day, but Hernan said his actions were not intentional and were due in part to fatigue, which he called a common problem in the railroad industry.
“No one is more sorry or upset about this train derailment than Michael Seifert,” Hernan said. He described a chain of events that he said led up to the accident, adding that the events actually began in Canada.
“The train was loaded in Canada,” Hernan said. “This was a very heavy train. It came down through this section of track because another was out of service due to flooding.”
Hernan added that Keating Summit is one of the steepest grades in the Eastern United States. He went into a detailed explanation of the braking system on diesel trains, basically explaining that it takes time for the brakes to engage and then actually stop the train.
“In a very brief period of time this train went out of control,” he said, adding by looking at the event log from the train, it appears the train went out of control in a matter of about three minutes.
Explaining how to pull a heavy trainload over a large hill, Hernan said, “If the heavy cars are in the back, you have to continue to accelerate to get those heavy cars over the summit.”
Referring to the event log, Hernan said in a matter of 3 minutes, the train went from 15 miles per hour to 73.
“The event recorder shows that Michael Seifert was trying to slow that train down,” Hernan said.
Parno objected, saying he was concerned that Hernan was putting on an argument against culpability in the accident.
The judge overruled the objection, saying Hernan was “presenting extenuating circumstances” for the judge to consider.
Referring to Seifert himself, Hernan said his client is a hardworking person with an excellent work record.
“Maybe he did too little. Maybe it was too late. For a period of maybe one minute, twelve seconds, he was not driving that train properly,” Hernan said. “It’s unfortunate that very short period of time led to an environmental catastrophe. He just didn’t do his job well for that period of time.”
Pavlock addressed the court prior to sentencing.
“The defendant was in charge of this train,” Pavlock said. “He knows what’s supposed to be done. What happened here is exactly the opposite. There were drugs in his system. He was falling asleep. The cars whipped off the tracks. The sodium hydroxide causes thousands and thousands of fish to be killed. He had a duty to operate that train safely.”
He asked White to impose a sentence that would prohibit Seifert from operating any commercial vehicle for profit for the time of his sentence. White agreed.
Parno also addressed the court.
“What has been overlooked, to some extent, is the catastrophe to the environment,” Parno said. “There was upwards of a half million aquatic life killed.”
He also referred to the potential catastrophe that could have happened if the chlorine tank had ruptured. “That would have been a catastrophe to human life.
“I’ve been the chief of the environmental crime section for eight years,” Parno said, referring to his time with the state attorney general’s office. “This is the largest catastrophe I’ve witnessed.”
White also made it part of the sentence that if Seifert’s behavior is “exemplary” for the first three months at the jail, he’ll consider allowing Seifert to serve the remainder of his sentence on house arrest. White made it part of the sentencing order that the community service should be work related to environmental improvement.
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