Harrowing Cel Phone Video Of Tragic And Deadly S.C. Cleveland Park Train Ride Released…Investigation Continues As Family Buries The Little Victim Today

Police have released amateur cel phone video taken on the miniature train ride at Cleveland Park moments before  it crashed, injuring 27 0f the 28 passengers on board including the conductor, and killing six-year-old Benji Easler.(Source)

Funeral service’s were held this afternoon celebrating the life of little six year-old Benji, at his father’s Corinth Baptist Church in Gaffney,S.C., with burial afterward at the church cemetery.(Source)

The train conductor, Matt Conrad,42, told the police on the scene at the time of the crash,that he knew that he had been driving the train too fast on the third lap, and felt guilty that his alleged reckless actions may have caused the accident.

Conductor Matt Conrad drove little Benji to death

Today, as the family buries little Benj, Conrad’s attorney Kim Varner said Conrad retained legal counsel because he felt he was being turned into a “scapegoat” and had met with several individuals, including the Spartanburg Parks Commission, who indicated there could be criminal charges filed against him.(Source)

Matt Conrad is also walking back his statements regarding his admission of going too fas being a factor in the overturning and derailment of the train.

Conductor Matt Conrad hysterical and regretful after deadly miniature train crash

He said that he was in fact injured, and he was “hysterical” and in shock when he told an officer he was driving too fast in the hours following the tragedy.(Source)

According to a police in­cident report, Conrad told a police officer in an am­bulance that he felt he was driving too fast.

“Mr. Conrad stated multiple and various times throughout the time he was at Spartan­burg Regional that he was going too fast,” wrote Spartanburg Public Safe­ty Officer C. Robinson in his report.

Green­ville attorney Kim Varner said her client, Matt Conrad’s who does mechanical checks on the train as well as drive it,theory is that a pin broke that attached a device that allows all four of the loco­motive’s wheels to turn in unison broke and failed to operate properly, causing the tragic crash.(Source)

They feel that equipment malfunction is the only possible cause of the crash, and that speed should be discounted altogether, no matter what Conrad said in his moments of physical pain and grieving.(Source)

Conrad claims that he feels a moral responsibility for the crash, and proclaims that he is a victim too.

Conrad said he talked to the father of the child killed in the wreck.”He prayed with me over the phone,” Conrad said.(Source)

Rev. Dwight Easler ,who was also injured and taken to the hospital from the crash, wanted to let the public know that he and his family are not blaming anyone for the tragic death of their son Benji,and said that although it is important to get to the bottom of the accident’s cause to prevent it from happening again, that they are not judging anyone.(Source)

They do not want to point a finger at, or blame anyone.There is nothing that they can do by being angry and vengeful, as it will not bring back their son, little Benji.

One of the families injured in a children’s train ride crash that killed a 6-year-old boy filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the weekend wreck, accusing South Carolina and county officials of negligence.(Source)