Hearing in Train Derailment Case

A McKean County judge will hold a hearing July 11 to determine whether to throw out some evidence against a railroad engineer whose train derailed and polluted part of Sinnemahoning-Portage Creek. The attorney for 46-year-old Michael Seifert, of West Seneca, N.Y., says investigators illegally obtained his employment records from Norfolk Southern offices. The attorney says state investigators also obtained private medical information about Seifert without a search warrant or his permission. He was driving a train that jumped the tracks in June 2006 near Gardeau. About 42,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide spilled into the stream, killing thousands of fish. Prosecutors say Seifert was under the influence of drugs and may have fallen asleep as the train began to speed down a steep grade.