YouTuber who jumped creek in Ram TRX charged criminally, fined $53,000

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Michael Hyssong, also known as Street Speed 717, has been fined US$53,000 (roughly CDN$67,000) for actions depicted on his popular YouTube channel. Specifically, he was dinged for environmental damages caused while performing stunts in a then-new Ram TRX pickup truck in rural Pennsylvania, says the York Daily Record .

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With over one million subscribers, Hyssong has managed to make a living recording outrageous videos using vehicles – often new ones – to which he holds the keys.

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YouTuber who jumped creek in Ram TRX charged criminally, fined $53,000 Back to video

His antics caught the attention of the mainstream automotive media earlier this year when he launched a Ram TRX over a creek at speeds well north of anything for which the truck was designed. It should be noted the truck was only days old when the stunt was filmed.

Having massively misjudged his launch speed, the TRX landed (hard) at a brutal angle on the other side of the creek, causing an incredible amount of visible and unseen damage. Whether this was the intent is up for debate, but anyone blessed with the gift of hearing who watched the video got to listen to Hyssong frantically claim everything’s fine when it clearly isn’t.

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Naturally, he then went on to make a series of films about the truck and its damage , video which included randomly taking a claw hammer to its previously pristine exterior bodywork.

All of which caught the attention of local authorities, who tagged him with 18 charges of environmental damage . The legal trouble also enveloped videos which showed the TRX being driven in a creek; apparently, it would seem that while the waterway was on private property, a case was made that environmental damage could have occurred further downstream in the creek thanks to these actions.

As part of the sentence, Hyssong was placed in the state’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program, a service which apparently leaves the convicted individual with a clean record after completion. We will note that Hyssong’s lawyer has also been responsible for helping get Bill Cosby off the hook, plus the acquittal of a police officer who fatally shot a man in 2015.