Railroad disputes deadly derailment findings

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Federal Railroad Administration says a faulty track drainage system was the probable cause of a train derailment that killed a railroad conductor and injured an engineer south of Washburn.

The Bismarck Tribune reports that the Dakota Missouri Valley and Western Railroad dispute the federal findings. The railroad says the March derailment was caused by an unknown underground spring that eroded the bank below the track.

Forty-six-year-old Jeff Heitzmann was killed in the derailment when five engines went off the tracks, two of them falling onto the banks of Turtle Creek.

Railroad vice president Jeff Wood says the section of track that failed was inspected twice a week. He says the track was built in 1904.

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