(The following story by Sewell Chan appeared on the New York Times website on August 6, 2009.)
LONG ISLAND, N.Y. — A Long Island Rail Road engineer allowed a passenger to operate a train carrying nearly 400 riders to New York during the morning rush on July 2, and both men now face criminal charges of reckless endangerment, the authorities announced on Wednesday.
The engineer, Ronald Cabrera, 40, of Centereach, N.Y., and the passenger, William L. Kutsch, 47, of East Setauket, N.Y., surrendered to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Police Department on Wednesday and have been charged with reckless endangerment in the second degree, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
Mr. Cabrera, a 16-year veteran of the railroad, has also been charged with official misconduct, also a misdemeanor.
Mr. Kutsch’s lawyer, Peter Thomas of Flushing, Queens, said,
“We’ll wait for our day in court, and I’m confident when all the facts and circumstances are revealed my client will be vindicated.”
The two men created “a substantial risk of serious physical injury” to those on the train and in the communities around the tracks, said Kathleen Rice, the Nassau County district attorney, in announcing the charges. The train reached a top speed of 80 miles an hour and passed over 7 car crossings, a pedestrian crossing and 24 home signals in traveling from Hicksville, in Nassau County, to Hunters Point, in Long Island City, Queens.
The railroad said it had disciplined Mr. Cabrera; he was removed from service on July 2 and “has not operated a train since.”
Mr. Kutsch does not have a train engineer’s license and has never received formal instruction in driving a train.
Ms. Rice said a two-week investigation found that multiple witnesses saw Mr. Kutsch entering and leaving the single-occupancy cabin. The train requires an operator to be in constant contact with the “dead man’s pedal”; otherwise the brakes will engage and the train will stop, Ms. Rice said.