Teen sentenced for causing train derailment so he could record it, post video online
By Lori Pilger
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Nebraska (Lincoln Journal Star) — A young Bennet man who intentionally caused a costly train derailment as a 17-year-old in hopes of posting a viral video has been sentenced to five years of probation.
Zachary Hertzler, who pleaded no contest to felony criminal mischief for the incident April 22, 2024, declined an opportunity to say anything first.
His attorney, Jon Braaten, argued briefly for probation based on Hertzler being assessed as a low risk to reoffend.
On the other side, Chief Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Christopher Reid called what happened serious.
“This was an intentional act and took sophisticated knowledge of how the rail systems work,” the prosecutor said.
He said Hertzler had tampered with a padlocked train switch that day, causing the train to veer onto a sideline next to the grain elevator and strike an empty coal car before coming to a rest just west of the crossing.
Had the engineer not noticed the train switch in the wrong position and not gone into an emergency stop, Reid said, the derailment of a fully loaded eastbound BNSF coal train at a railroad crossing in Bennet at Monroe Street and Nebraska 43 could have resulted in serious injury or death to employees that night.
He said Hertzler apparently had done it in an attempt to gain notoriety on YouTube.
The teen, a railroad fan who spoke to investigators at the scene, posted a video of the derailment, which he’d taken on his cellphone, and got more than 300,000 views.
“The real question for the state is what is an appropriate outcome for this case that adequately punishes Mr. Hertzler for his actions and deters him from ever engaging in this conduct again?” Reid said.
Given the teen’s lack of criminal history, he said he could not say Hertzler wasn’t an appropriate candidate for probation. He is now a convicted felon, and his actions likely impacted his goal of working for the railroad one day.
“The state does hope that is enough of a wake-up call for him to not do this sort of act again,” Reid said.
Lancaster County District Judge Andrew Jacobsen said he didn’t know if Hertzler ever expressly admitted this was an intentional act.
“You wanted video of a train derailment, so you set up to make the video, and you got what you wanted,” the judge said. “Unfortunately, it was at the expense of others.”
Jacobsen said the incident caused upward of $250,000 in damage to the rail line, owned by Omaha Public Power District, and to two BNSF locomotives and two rail cars.
He said it also led to an extensive investigation by the railroad and law enforcement and significant use of manpower and hours.
But, Jacobsen said, Hertzler is now a convicted felon, which carries some consequences of its own. And he sentenced him to five years of probation, plus 90 days of jail, the first 30 of which start Monday and can be on house arrest. The remaining 60 days would be in 15-day increments once a year in June unless waived by his probation officer.
Hertzler, 19, had faced up to two years in prison.
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