- Teenager allegedly caused a train to crash and filmed the results
- Incident happened in April and caused hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage
- Teen was found at the scene of the crash, and he uploaded footage to his channel
A teenager from Nebraska has been charged over an incident where a train was allegedly deliberately derailed and the results filmed and posted to YouTube.
The unnamed 17-year-old appeared in Lancaster County Juvenile Court last week, although the case could be transferred to an adult court, if a motion filed by prosecutors is agreed.
Wrong line
The crash occurred in Bennet on April 21 when a train crashed into an empty coal car after it had ended up on the wrong line due to a misaligned switch. The crash caused widespread damage estimated to cost $350,000 but no one was hurt in the incident.
The conductors of the BNSF Railway train attempted to stop but couldn’t make it in time before the impact, which involved two locomotives and five rail cars – all of which were derailed, but none overturned.
A video of the crash was later posted on a YouTube channel that prosecutors say is associated with the accused. The video is titled: “Loaded BNSF Arbor COLLIDES and DERAILs in Bennet, NE! MOST INSANE VIDEO I’VE EVER TAKEN!”
On the scene
The accused teen is thought to be a fan of railways, and was the one who first reported the incident, according to court documents.
Investigators reported that the teen knew where the switches to switch the rail lines were and how they worked. In addition, it was later ascertained that a tripod was set up close to the accident site just minutes before the derailment occurred. When talking about the cause of the accident, the teen is alleged to have said that ‘obviously a switch was flipped the wrong way.’
