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Stuart Conklin, age 66 of Magnolia, Texas, entered his guilty plea on Friday, Dec. 1 for submitting a false inspection report during his time as a LIRR worker, the US Attorney’s Eastern District of New York Office said.
Conklin was working for the LIRR as a signalman at the time of the alleged crime. Among his duties was inspecting rail bonds – the electronic jumpers around railroad track joints that ensure signal currents are continuously conducted.
While working in Speonk on April 29, 2019, Conklin falsely included in an inspection report that he had inspected a particular rail bond and that the rail bond had passed his inspection.
However, the US Attorney’s Office said, video footage from the station showed that Conklin did not check the rail bond at all during his shift.
The issue came to a head about one month later when, on May 23, 2019, a westbound LIRR train collided with the tail end of an eastbound LIRR train at the Speonk station.
An investigation by the LIRR following the crash determined that the rail bond Conklin said he inspected was actually broken, which caused a signal malfunction in which the rear part of the westbound train did not register in the LIRR signal system.
Because the train did not register as occupying a section of the side track, the eastbound train was cleared to pass on the main track even though there wasn’t room for it to do so, causing the derailment.
According to a Facebook post by the LIRR, the crew had to replace hundreds of feet of heavily damaged main track, destroyed and damaged switches, and more.
“While thankfully no one was seriously hurt in this accident, it is a stark reminder of the importance federal oversight plays in the safety and integrity of our transportation system,” said United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace.
Conklin was charged with making a false entry in a report required to be kept by the LIRR under federal laws governing railroad safety and operations in March 2021. He was indicted in April 2022.
He is expected to face up to two years behind bars when he is sentenced.
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