Speeding vehicle skips off tracks, survivors say
MARI YAMAGUCHI
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Investigators focused on whether excessive speed or the actions of the inexperienced 23-year-old driver caused the crash in an urban area near Amagasaki, about 410 kilometres west of Tokyo.
The packed seven-car train was carrying 580 passengers when it derailed, plowing through an automobile before slamming into a nine-storey apartment complex.
Two of the five derailed cars were shoved inside and flattened against the wall of the building’s first-floor garage. Hundreds of rescue workers and police swarmed the wreckage to recover bodies, tend to the injured and try to free at least three survivors still trapped inside 13 hours after the crash.
The accident at 9:18 a.m. local time occurred at a curve after a straightaway. Passengers speculated that the driver — who was still unaccounted for — may have been speeding to make up for lost time after overshooting the previous station.
Investigators suspected speed and driver inexperience, but weren’t ruling out other factors.
Transport Minister Kazuo Kitagawa told reporters he would order all of Japan’s railway operators to conduct safety inspections in the coming days.
The accident was the worst rail disaster in nearly 42 years in safety-conscious Japan, which is home to one of the world’s most complex, efficient and heavily travelled rail networks. A three-train crash in November 1963 killed 161 people in Tsurumi, outside Tokyo.
Tsunemi Murakami, safety director for train operator West Japan Railway Co., said it wasn’t clear how fast the train was travelling.
A crew member aboard told police later he “felt the train was going faster than usual,” public broadcaster NHK said, echoing comments from passengers who told the network that the driver seemed to be trying to make up for lost time after overshooting the previous station by eight metres and then having to back up. The train was nearly two minutes behind schedule, media reports said.
The driver, identified as Ryujiro Takami, 23, had obtained his train operator’s licence in May 2004. One month later, he overran a station and was issued a warning for his mistake, railway officials and police said.
Monday’s crash occurred at a curve, where drivers are required to slow to a speed of 70 kilometres an hour. An automatic braking system along that stretch of track is among the oldest in Japan and can’t halt trains travelling at high speeds, transport ministry officials said. Newer systems are designed to stop trains at signs of trouble without requiring drivers to take emergency action.
Safety director Murakami estimated that the train had to have been travelling at 133 km-h to have jumped the track through excessive speed. Investigators also found evidence of rocks on the tracks, but hadn’t determined whether that contributed to the crash, he said.
Survivors said the force of the derailment sent passengers tumbling, and many were bloodied or unconscious.
“There was a violent shaking, and the next moment I was thrown to the floor ... and I landed on top of a pile of other people,” passenger Tatsuya Akashi told NHK. “I didn’t know what happened, and there were many people bleeding.”
Distraught relatives rushed to hospitals to search lists of the injured and dead. Takamichi Hayashi said his elder brother, 19-year-old Hiroki, had called their mother on a mobile phone from inside one of the train cars just after the crash but remained unaccounted for. He said he had heard Hiroki was among those still inside the wreckage.
Late Monday, rescuers trained floodlights on the damaged cars and administered emergency medical care to three conscious survivors, but were hampered by worries about a gasoline leak, said Amagasaki Fire Department official Shohei Matsuda. Others were also inside but they were feared dead.
No comments:
Post a Comment