A teenager is accused of deliberately causing a train derailment in Nebraska to record it and post it to YouTube.
The 17-year-old, who has not been identified because he is a minor, had his cellphone and a 4k digital recorder confiscated by an investigator for BNSF Railway on July 8 in connection with the derailment months earlier, Fox Nebraska reports.
He had allegedly told investigators at the scene of the April 21 derailment that he recorded the crash in Bennet, in which two locomotives and five fully-loaded coal trains veered off the tracks but remained upright.
They then struck an empty coal car that was parked at the siding before coming to a rest, according to an affidavit obtained by Fox Nebraska.
A teenager has been charged for allegedly causing a train derailment in Bennet, Nebraska on April 21
A train conductor told an investigator for the railroad company in the aftermath that his train was traveling eastbound and approaching a crossing when he noticed that a switch was misaligned.
The switch caused the train to veer onto an industry track next to a grain elevator.
The conductor said he tried to make an emergency stop, but it did not activate before reaching the switch spot and that caused the train to crash.
The investigator later found that a padlock that was supposed to be attached to the switch was missing – indicating that it had been tampered with, KOLN reports.
Meanwhile, the teenager showed up at the scene of the crash and asked about the derailment – noting that he had recorded the crash on his phone.
Then, when authorities said they did not know the cause of the derailment, the affidavit says, the boy replied, ‘Obviously, a switch was flipped the wrong way.’
Investigators also say the teen’s video – which was later posted to a YouTube account believed to belong to the boy – showed the scene before, during and after the crash.
The boy denied trespassing and tampering with the switch, but the investigator on the scene noted he knew where it was and how it worked.
Two locomotives and five fully-loaded coal trains veered off the tracks but remained upright
An investigator with BNSF Railway noticed that a padlock that was supposed to be attached to the switch was missing – indicating that it had been tampered with
Three days after the derailment, the BNSF investigator obtained surveillance footage showing a 1996 Buick Park Avenue in the area, and the teen walking on the south end of the tracks toward the switch with a tripod, the affidavit says.
He was later recorded returning to his vehicle after the derailment caused about $350,000 in damages to BNSF Railway and the Omaha Public Power District, which own the tracks that are used to supply coal to an OPPD plant in Nebraska City.
The teen has now been charged of criminal mischief over $5,000, KOLN reports.
But Lancaster County Attorney Pat Condon said the boy’s not in police custody.
He noted that his office will now file a motion to transfer the case to an adult court.
