Taiwan Train Accident Kills at Least 22 and Injures About 170 Others

[Kailash Kumar]

Taiwan Train Accident Kills at Least 22 and Injures About 170 Others

The coastal Puyuma Express train was carrying more than 350 passengers when it derailed Sunday afternoon in Yian, eastern Taiwan, officials said

TAIPEI, Taiwan — At least 22 people were killed and 171 others injured after a passenger train derailed late Sunday afternoon in northeastern Taiwan on a coastal route popular among tourists, railroad officials and local news reports said.

The Puyuma Express train was carrying 366 passengers from Shulin in New Taipei City, in the north, to Taitung, a city on Taiwan’s southeast, when it went off the tracks near Xinma Station in Yilan County about 4:50 p.m. local time.

Images on social media showed the mangled wreckage of the train carriages in a zigzag pattern near the tracks, and injured passengers lying on the ground. Five of the eight carriages were reported to have overturned.

Some passengers were crushed to death, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, Chen Chung-chi, said, according to The Associated Press. “Their train car turned over. They were crushed, so they died right away.”

About 120 soldiers were called to the site to help remove bodies so that they could be identified, he added, but nightfall was complicating rescue work.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1053946479633551360

Video footage showed emergency workers pulling people from the wreckage in Yilan County. Most of the deaths were in the first car, which flipped over, a government spokesman said, according to The A.P.

Rescuers tending to injured passengers after a train derailed in Yilan, Taiwan, on Sunday.

On Sunday evening, as many as 30 people were still trapped in the wreckage, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Local television reports said that passengers were trying to escape through train windows and that bystanders had gathered to help them before rescuers arrived, The A.P. said.

The country’s transport ministry said later Sunday night that 22 people had died and 171 other injured. It said a 43-year-old American woman was among those injured, CCN said.

The Taiwan Railways Administration said it had formed a disaster response team to investigate the cause of the crash. The injured were being treated at four hospitals.

A local official told United Daily News, a Taiwan newspaper, that the conductor said an unidentified object had been on the tracks and may have caused the train to derail.

Train accidents are fairly rare in Taiwan, with the last crash of a similar scale taking place in 2003, when a train serving the mountain tourist destination of Ali Mountain derailed, killing 17 people and injuring 156 others.

In 2011, at least six people were killed and more than 50 others injured after a tree collapsed into the path of a tourist train also serving Ali Mountain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/world/asia/taiwan-train-crash.html

No hateful comments please.

 

[ashok mourya]

So sad....on shanti

 

[Nike]

rip for the victims

 

[Suika]

My first guess as to why it happened is that maybe it was going too fast on that turn. RIP.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

Taiwan Train Accident Kills at Least 22 and Injures About 170 Others

The coastal Puyuma Express train was carrying more than 350 passengers when it derailed Sunday afternoon in Yian, eastern Taiwan, officials said

TAIPEI, Taiwan — At least 22 people were killed and 171 others injured after a passenger train derailed late Sunday afternoon in northeastern Taiwan on a coastal route popular among tourists, railroad officials and local news reports said.

The Puyuma Express train was carrying 366 passengers from Shulin in New Taipei City, in the north, to Taitung, a city on Taiwan’s southeast, when it went off the tracks near Xinma Station in Yilan County about 4:50 p.m. local time.

Images on social media showed the mangled wreckage of the train carriages in a zigzag pattern near the tracks, and injured passengers lying on the ground. Five of the eight carriages were reported to have overturned.

Some passengers were crushed to death, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, Chen Chung-chi, said, according to The Associated Press. “Their train car turned over. They were crushed, so they died right away.”

About 120 soldiers were called to the site to help remove bodies so that they could be identified, he added, but nightfall was complicating rescue work.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1053946479633551360

Video footage showed emergency workers pulling people from the wreckage in Yilan County. Most of the deaths were in the first car, which flipped over, a government spokesman said, according to The A.P.

Rescuers tending to injured passengers after a train derailed in Yilan, Taiwan, on Sunday.

On Sunday evening, as many as 30 people were still trapped in the wreckage, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency.

Local television reports said that passengers were trying to escape through train windows and that bystanders had gathered to help them before rescuers arrived, The A.P. said.

The country’s transport ministry said later Sunday night that 22 people had died and 171 other injured. It said a 43-year-old American woman was among those injured, CCN said.

The Taiwan Railways Administration said it had formed a disaster response team to investigate the cause of the crash. The injured were being treated at four hospitals.

A local official told United Daily News, a Taiwan newspaper, that the conductor said an unidentified object had been on the tracks and may have caused the train to derail.

Train accidents are fairly rare in Taiwan, with the last crash of a similar scale taking place in 2003, when a train serving the mountain tourist destination of Ali Mountain derailed, killing 17 people and injuring 156 others.

In 2011, at least six people were killed and more than 50 others injured after a tree collapsed into the path of a tourist train also serving Ali Mountain.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/21/world/asia/taiwan-train-crash.html

No hateful comments please.

Japan Shinkansen high-speed rail 0 accident, this must be fake news from China taiwan.

Japan Shinkansen high-speed rail 0 accident, this must be fake news from China taiwan.

So sad....on shanti

Japan Shinkansen high-speed rail 0 accident, this must be fake news from China taiwan.

 

[AndrewJin]

RIP

Now the biggest suspicion is on ATP failure or braking system.

Before it derailed, the driver had reported two occasions of problems.

I had been watching Taiwan’s 中天新闻 since the accident happened for 5 hours.

 

[Yingluck]

Many countries stop upgrading their infrastructure. Only China is doing a good upgrade.

Disaster is bound to happen.

RIP

Now the biggest suspicion is on ATP failure or braking system.

Before it derailed, the driver had reported two occasions of problems.

I had been watching Taiwan’s 中天新闻 since the accident happened for 5 hours.

 

[royalharris]

The Puyuma is an intercity-type tilting AC electric train that Taiwan purchased from JAPAN in 2006. The initial order was obtained by Hitachi, model TEMU1000, with eight cars per column. The first order submitted by the Taiwan Railway was 12 vehicles, but the Taiwan Railways required two batches of purchases, six columns at a time. The second six Hitachis failed to deliver in time due to larger orders, but the reason for Hitachi was the yen. The exchange rate rose and there was no question of the exchange rate in the contract. The Taiwan Railway has no choice but to turn to Sumitomo's procurement. In order to distinguish the Hitachi model, Sumitomo's model of the Puyuma is set to TEMU2000.

The JAPAN Shinkansen was born in 1964. In 1972, the E951 model ran at a speed of 286 kilometers per hour. After so many years, the technology of the Shinkansen has matured a lot

The Shinkansen is not foolproof. From February 21, 1973 to April 14, 2016, there were five accidents. As the highest-grade high-speed electric locomotive, there will be accidents. Pumagoma, a low-standard narrow-gauge train, has an accident. It is not surprising to help, but the consequences of Yilan this time are too serious.

Wish Shinkansen technology will be used in India to clear out various defects and help improve the safety of Shinkansen for the world

RIP

 

[AndrewJin]

Many countries stop upgrading their infrastructure. Only China is doing a good upgrade.

Disaster is bound to happen.

I saw the drone view of that station, it looks so outdated especially the sharp curve of tracks.

 

[Adam WANG SHANGHAI MEGA]

Japan Shinkansen high-speed rail is very expensive ,even if taiwan railway want to upgrade,they do not have that kind of money!

 

[AndrewJin]

Watch Taiwan news channel live, only in Chinese

 

[AndrewJin]

YILAN, Taiwan (Kyodo) -- Railway service partially resumed Monday morning after a train derailed in northeastern Taiwan the previous day, killing 18 people and injuring about 190 others.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen visited the site of the accident in Yilan County in the morning, telling reporters that the government aims to resume service fully within three days and will promptly investigate the cause of the derailment.

The Taiwan Railways Administration, at a late-night press conference, suggested that the express train may have encountered some mechanical trouble before the accident occurred, saying the driver had reported a lack of power.


Taiwanese media quoted a passenger as saying that before the derailment, the train had made an unscheduled stop at a station after the crew announced over the PA system that the train was experiencing a problem with its motor.

The train, operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration since February 2013, uses cars made by Nippon Sharyo Ltd., a leading Japanese manufacturer of railway carriages.

A Nippon Sharyo representative declined to comment Monday, saying company staff in Taiwan were still gathering information.

The Puyuma Express, bound for Taitung in southeastern Taiwan from New Taipei with 366 people on board, derailed on a curve near a station in Yilan at around 4:50 p.m., leaving some of its cars overturned. Military personnel and firefighters worked overnight to rescue survivors and clear the wreckage.

The driver of the train has been hospitalized with injuries, and police are planning to question the driver later, according to local media

 

[JSCh]

ATP disabled before deadly Puyuma Expres... | Taiwan News
TRA director confirms that driver disabled Automatic Train Protection System before deadly derailment in Taiwan's Yilan

By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2018/10/22 16:59

(By Central News Agency)​

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- The disabling of the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system by a Puyuma Express driver could have been the cause of yesterday's deadly derailment of a Puyuma Express train in Taiwan's Yilan County, which killed 18 and injured 190.

The Puyuma express train No. 6432 , headed from northern Taiwan to the south-eastern city of Taitung (台東), had a total of 366 passengers onboard when it came off the tracks close to the Xinma Station (蘇澳鎭) in Su'ao at 4:50 p.m. yesterday afternoon (Oct. 21), according to TRA. All eight of the carriages comprising the train came off the rails, with five completely overturning, killing 18 and injuring 190.

In response, TRA Director-General Lu Chieh-shen (鹿潔身) accepted full responsibility for the disastrous derailment and offered Minister of Transportation and Communications Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) his resignation. However, Wu insisted that Lu first manage emergency repairs, take care of the passengers and ensure that the railway returns to normal operations within three days before he would consider his resignation.

(CNA image)​

At a press conference today, Chief Secretary of TRA, Chu Lai-shun (朱來順), said that the driver of the train reported a problem with "low (air) pressure" just before the accident occurred. Chu said that a failure of the air compressor would lead to insufficient power and deceleration, but should not cause a derailment.

The TRA today said that there had been no reports of a malfunction of the ATP system before the departure of No. 6432 yesterday. It did say that there was a report of an irregularity with the main air compressor between Toucheng and Yilan, but that it returned to normal after passing Yilan, and even if the compressor had malfunctioned again, it would have caused the train to decelerate rather than reach the high speeds it was seen approaching just before the derailment.

In an interview with Apple Daily at noon today, Lu confirmed that the driver of the Puyuma train took the initiative to notify dispatchers that he was disabling ATP. According to regulations, after disabling ATP, it is necessary to implement a call-and-answer mechanism with each station and follow set speed limits.

(CNA image)​

Yesterday, when the train approached Xinma Railway Station, a traffic recorder registered the train has speeding along at a standard 140 kilometers per hour. However, when approaching curves the trains are normally supposed to reduce their speed in half to between 60 to 70 kph, reported Liberty Times.

Investigators believe that without ATP to keep the train in check, it reached a highly dangerous speed for the curved section of track, ultimately leading the train to leap off the rails. As to why the driver allowed the train exceed the set speed limit by so much, the TRA has begun an investigation into the driver's communications and call records.

According to regulations, the driver can shut down ATP if the ATP equipment is malfunctioning, as long as he notifies the dispatcher. Lu said that the dispatcher did receive a notification that ATP had been disabled, but as for why he chose to take this step, investigators have not yet to review all communication and call records by the driver to make an accurate assessment.

(CNA image)​

As for rumors that the driver was inexperienced, Chu said that he had five years of experience and had a good performance record. Therefore, he ruled out inexperience on the part of the driver as being a major factor.

In terms of maintenance records, an unnamed source told Apple Daily, this particular train had undergone a major inspection in April of last year, passed a quarterly inspection in September, and a daily inspection the day of the accident.

Regarding the section of track where the derailment occurred, Chu said that there was indeed of excessive curvature of the track in that area, but he does not believe it posts a major safety hazard to rail traffic. Chu said there was no plan in the works to straighten that section of track and the TRA would wait until there were conclusive results on the cause of the accident before implementing a major overhaul of the line.

(CNA image)​

Lai Sui-chin (賴隨金), deputy head of the TRA's Rolling Stock Department, said that the driver requested technical assistance for a faulty air compressor at 4:20 p.m. When the train pulled into Yilan Station at 4:23 p.m., technicians found that the air compressor was not generating sufficient pressure because it was overloaded.

Technicians then reset the compressor and they reported that it was restored to normal, before the train departed for Xinma Station, according to Lai.

Lai said the ATP has a black box, but because the scene of the derailment has been sealed off and is being investigated, and it had not yet been accessed. Because the ATP did not have a record of malfunctioning, the TRA has created a special investigation team together to inspect the device.

 

[AndrewJin]

ATP disabled before deadly Puyuma Expres... | Taiwan News
TRA director confirms that driver disabled Automatic Train Protection System before deadly derailment in Taiwan's Yilan

By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2018/10/22 16:59

(By Central News Agency)​

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- The disabling of the Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system by a Puyuma Express driver could have been the cause of yesterday's deadly derailment of a Puyuma Express train in Taiwan's Yilan County, which killed 18 and injured 190.

The Puyuma express train No. 6432 , headed from northern Taiwan to the south-eastern city of Taitung (台東), had a total of 366 passengers onboard when it came off the tracks close to the Xinma Station (蘇澳鎭) in Su'ao at 4:50 p.m. yesterday afternoon (Oct. 21), according to TRA. All eight of the carriages comprising the train came off the rails, with five completely overturning, killing 18 and injuring 190.

In response, TRA Director-General Lu Chieh-shen (鹿潔身) accepted full responsibility for the disastrous derailment and offered Minister of Transportation and Communications Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀) his resignation. However, Wu insisted that Lu first manage emergency repairs, take care of the passengers and ensure that the railway returns to normal operations within three days before he would consider his resignation.

(CNA image)​

At a press conference today, Chief Secretary of TRA, Chu Lai-shun (朱來順), said that the driver of the train reported a problem with "low (air) pressure" just before the accident occurred. Chu said that a failure of the air compressor would lead to insufficient power and deceleration, but should not cause a derailment.

The TRA today said that there had been no reports of a malfunction of the ATP system before the departure of No. 6432 yesterday. It did say that there was a report of an irregularity with the main air compressor between Toucheng and Yilan, but that it returned to normal after passing Yilan, and even if the compressor had malfunctioned again, it would have caused the train to decelerate rather than reach the high speeds it was seen approaching just before the derailment.

In an interview with Apple Daily at noon today, Lu confirmed that the driver of the Puyuma train took the initiative to notify dispatchers that he was disabling ATP. According to regulations, after disabling ATP, it is necessary to implement a call-and-answer mechanism with each station and follow set speed limits.

(CNA image)​

Yesterday, when the train approached Xinma Railway Station, a traffic recorder registered the train has speeding along at a standard 140 kilometers per hour. However, when approaching curves the trains are normally supposed to reduce their speed in half to between 60 to 70 kph, reported Liberty Times.

Investigators believe that without ATP to keep the train in check, it reached a highly dangerous speed for the curved section of track, ultimately leading the train to leap off the rails. As to why the driver allowed the train exceed the set speed limit by so much, the TRA has begun an investigation into the driver's communications and call records.

According to regulations, the driver can shut down ATP if the ATP equipment is malfunctioning, as long as he notifies the dispatcher. Lu said that the dispatcher did receive a notification that ATP had been disabled, but as for why he chose to take this step, investigators have not yet to review all communication and call records by the driver to make an accurate assessment.

(CNA image)​

As for rumors that the driver was inexperienced, Chu said that he had five years of experience and had a good performance record. Therefore, he ruled out inexperience on the part of the driver as being a major factor.

In terms of maintenance records, an unnamed source told Apple Daily, this particular train had undergone a major inspection in April of last year, passed a quarterly inspection in September, and a daily inspection the day of the accident.

Regarding the section of track where the derailment occurred, Chu said that there was indeed of excessive curvature of the track in that area, but he does not believe it posts a major safety hazard to rail traffic. Chu said there was no plan in the works to straighten that section of track and the TRA would wait until there were conclusive results on the cause of the accident before implementing a major overhaul of the line.

(CNA image)​

Lai Sui-chin (賴隨金), deputy head of the TRA's Rolling Stock Department, said that the driver requested technical assistance for a faulty air compressor at 4:20 p.m. When the train pulled into Yilan Station at 4:23 p.m., technicians found that the air compressor was not generating sufficient pressure because it was overloaded.

Technicians then reset the compressor and they reported that it was restored to normal, before the train departed for Xinma Station, according to Lai.

Lai said the ATP has a black box, but because the scene of the derailment has been sealed off and is being investigated, and it had not yet been accessed. Because the ATP did not have a record of malfunctioning, the TRA has created a special investigation team together to inspect the device.

I assume, because of the two reported troubles (also noticed by many on-board passengers), the driver was under pressure to stick to the tight schedule, therefore he shut down the ATP but failed to follow SOPs.

I guess it was an unfortunate combination of both human mistakes and technological failures.

An leaked internal report (denied by the railway authority), also indicated the authority's concerns about the problematic designs of these trains at first place.

 

[dy1022]

Made in Japan!