UP engineer charged with being on drugs while driving hazmat-loaded train

A Union Pacific engineer has been charged with being on drugs while driving a train loaded with 16,000 tons of hazardous materials across eastern Wyoming. Kristopher Richards, born in 1979, upset the conductor with his alleged aggressive and bizarre behavior to the point that they fought, the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office reports. Then the conductor locked himself in the locomotive for the last two hours of the train’s run from North Platte, Nebraska, to Cheyenne on Friday.

“He was extremely impaired,” Sheriff Brian Kozak said. The conductor noticed his coworker appeared to be under the influence of something and was “violent and erratic.” The two reportedly got into a fight before the conductor barricaded himself in an engine room. The train was stopped prior to reaching the depot in Cheyenne.

When asked about his ability to control the train, Richards responded that he was in full control, adding that at some point he had fallen asleep “a little bit” and possibly “for the whole trip.” Richards had urinated in his pants twice, appeared to be using a length of rope as an improvised belt, and his eyes were very bloodshot. A Drug Recognition Expert determined Richards was under the influence of a central nervous system stimulant, likely meth or cocaine.

The conductor told deputies that Richards had made statements about having killed his cats, mentioned deceased family members, and attempted to give him multiple random objects out of his backpack. Richards also talked about atomic bombs being placed on a train “and that his family could help him make a smaller version of a bomb which would fit on the locomotive.”

The train was 12,755 feet long, made up of 127 loaded cars and 55 empty cars, and weighed about 16,000 tons. It was carrying hazardous material including diesel fuel, liquefied petroleum gas residue, ammonia nitrate residue, and hot asphalt. Kozak hailed the conductor and UP officials for their efforts. “Hats off to the conductor who absolutely saved lives and a big tragedy from occurring in Cheyenne,” he said. “I think he really could have really prevented a tragedy.”