A former New York commuter rail employee was charged on Thursday with falsifying a track inspection report a few weeks before two train cars derailed in 2019, federal authorities said Thursday.
A criminal complaint says Stuart Conklin logged a report claiming he had inspected electronic jumpers on a busy section of the Long Island Rail Road. But video footage from a LIRR camera showed that the signalman didn’t do checks that would have found dangerous defects, prosecutors said.
A few weeks later, two cars of a 10-car train derailed on the broken track. About 30 passengers were evacuated but there were no injuries.
Conklin, 63, was to appear in court later Thursday. His attorney, Anthony LaPinta, called his client a “hardworking and loyal LIRR employee” whose conduct wasn’t criminal.
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