American Teenager Charged After Deliberately Forcing Train to Crash to Watch YouTube Video

A 17-year-old teenager in the US has been accused of deliberately causing a train derailment in order to record it and post it on YouTube. According to court documents, the Nebraska teenager allegedly ran the train off the tracks, recorded the incident and shared the footage on YouTube, Subway reported.

The incident happened in April this year when the teenager allegedly tampered with a railway switch, causing two locomotives and five fully loaded coal trains to leave the tracks and collide with an empty coal wagon. He then alerted authorities to the derailment and asked the arriving investigator what caused the accident. He told the investigator that he was a train enthusiast and showed him the video he had filmed of the derailment.

When authorities said they did not know the cause of the derailment, the boy said, “Obviously a switch was thrown in the wrong direction.”

A BNSF Railway investigator discovered that a padlock that should have been attached to the switch was missing, indicating tampering. Three days later, a BNSF investigator obtained CCTV footage showing a 1996 Buick Park Avenue nearby, with the same teenager walking toward the switch at the south end of the tracks. According to the affidavit, the teen was later recorded returning to his vehicle.

A the video of the derailment was posted on a YouTube account it is believed to be linked to the teenager, an investigator said. Authorities also discovered that a tripod was set up near the crash site just four minutes before the train derailed. The derailment caused $350,000 in damage to the BNSF Railroad and the Omaha Public Power District, according to NBC News.

The 17-year-old was arraigned in Lancaster County Juvenile Court on Wednesday, but prosecutors requested the case be transferred to adult court. He faces two felony counts 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 keep it in juvenile court,” said Lancaster County Attorney Patrick Condon. McClatchy News.