The derailment caused $350,000 in damages to BNSF Railway and the Omaha Public Power District
A 17-year-old teenager in the US has been accused of deliberately causing a train derailment to record it and post it on YouTube. According to court documents, the Nebraska teen allegedly caused the train to go off the tracks, recorded the incident, and shared the footage on YouTube, Metro reported.
The incident happened in April this year when the teen allegedly tampered with a rail switch, causing two locomotives and five fully loaded coal trains to veer off the tracks and crash into an empty coal car. He then alerted authorities to the derailment and asked the investigator who arrived what caused the crash. He told the investigator he was a train enthusiast and showed him the video he had shot of the derailment.
When authorities said they did not know the cause of the derailment, the boy said, ”Obviously a switch was flipped the wrong way.”
An investigator with BNSF Railway found that a padlock supposed to be attached to the switch was missing, indicating tampering. Three days later, a BNSF investigator obtained CCTV footage showing a 1996 Buick Park Avenue in the vicinity, with the same teenager walking towards the switch at the south end of the tracks. According to the affidavit, the teen was later recorded returning to his vehicle.
A video of the derailment was posted on a YouTube account believed to be linked to the teen, an investigator said. Authorities also discovered that a tripod had been set up near the accident site just four minutes before the train derailed. The derailment caused $350,000 in damages to BNSF Railway and the Omaha Public Power District, as per NBC News.
The 17-year-old was charged in Lancaster County Juvenile Court on Wednesday, but prosecutors have requested that the case be moved to adult court. He faces two felony charges of criminal mischief in connection with a train derailment.
”My office will file a motion to transfer the case to adult court and it will be up to the juvenile court Judge to transfer the case or have it remain in juvenile court,” Lancaster County Attorney Patrick Condon told McClatchy News.
