A Nebraska teenager has been charged with two felony counts of criminal mischief after he was accused of causing a train to derail, recording the crash and posting the video on YouTube, according to court records.
The 17-year-old was charged in Lancaster County Juvenile Court on Wednesday, but prosecutors have filed a motion to have the case transferred to adult court.
An investigator with BNSF Railway said in court documents that the teenager alerted authorities to the derailment and asked the investigator who arrived what caused the crash.
He is accused of tampering with a rail and causing two locomotives and five loaded BNSF cars to jump the rails in Bennet on April 21.
It wasn’t clear whether the teen had retained an attorney, and his parents couldn’t be reached for comment Thursday.
While the railcars remained upright, one crashed into an empty coal car, causing $350,000 in damage, an investigator for the rail company said in court records.
In the moments leading up to the crash, the conductor tried to make an emergency stop but ran out of time before the collision, court records show.
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The train conductor told a BNSF investigator that a misaligned switch led to the crash and that a padlock that was supposed to be attached to the switch was missing, the documents said.
BNSF Railway operates trains on the rail to supply coal to a power plant in Nebraska City.
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The teenager, who reported the derailment to authorities, approached an investigator after the crash and asked what caused it. When the investigator said it was undetermined, he responded that “obviously a switch was flipped the wrong way,” according to court records.
He told the investigator he was a train enthusiast and showed him the video he had shot of the derailment, the records said.
Lancaster County Attorney Patrick F. Condon declined to comment.
The teen denied trespassing in the area and tampering with the switch, but the investigator pointed out in the documents that he knew where the switch was and how it worked.
Authorities later discovered that a tripod had been set up near the accident site just four minutes before the train derailed, court records show.
"In the days following the derailment, a video of the derailment was posted to YouTube account ZUnit06, which is believed be associated with [the teen]," an investigator said in the document. "This account features numerous videos of trains filmed in Bennet, NE and other locations in Lancaster County, NE."
The investigator said a video posted April 23 was titled "Loaded BNSF Arbor Collides and Derails In Bennet, NE!"
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