Agency: Ride inspector faked report

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A state inspector falsified a safety report and admitted he never tested a children's train ride that derailed over the weekend, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring dozens of others, officials said Monday.

Meanwhile, new details of the moments before the crash emerged, with witnesses saying it felt like the small train was increasing its speed just before it went off the tracks near a bridge.

Officials have not said what caused the train to derail Saturday at Cleveland Park in Spartanburg, the northwestern part of the state. It was the train's first day of operation for the spring season.

Six-year-old Benji Easler died in the wreck, and his parents and siblings were also injured, along with 25 other children and adults onboard. The injuries ranged from bumps and bruises to broken bones.

The ride was supposedly tested last Wednesday by state inspector Donnie Carrigan, but he came forward after the accident to admit falsifying a report in which he marked the train's operation at proper speed as "satisfactory," according to Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation chief Catherine Templeton.

Carrigan, a 20-year agency employee who has been fired, said he didn't test the ride March 16 because its battery was dead, making it inoperable, according to Templeton.

"Unfortunately the inspector did not complete his job," Templeton said.

Templeton also said Carrigan's national certification had lapsed, and he would have been required to attend a retraining session in late April with six other LLR employees.