Human error was the probable cause of the Alishan train accident on Saturday, Luo Chien-hsun (羅建勛), chief prosecutor of the Chiayi Prosecutors' Office, said yesterday.
Initial investigations showed that a stopcock which controlled the airbrake connection between the locomotive and the carriages had been inadvertently left closed.
The accident happened on Saturday afternoon when a four-carriage mountain train, packed with nearly 200 people, derailed shortly after leaving Alishan Railway Station. Seventeen people were killed.
PHOTO: YANG KUO-TANG, TAIPEI TIMES
The Council of Agriculture's Taiwan Forestry Bureau, which is responsible for the operation of the railway, said 156 people were injured.
"I have worked as a train driver for more than 20 years. It was the first time I met this kind of situation," the train's driver, Tsai Chen-sun (蔡振森), said yesterday.
"Three minutes after departing from Alishan Station, the train began traveling down a gradient. I felt clearly the train was speeding," Tsai said.
"I tried desperately to stop the train but the brakes failed. Then the train rammed into the mountain side," Tsai said.
Luo said the train brakes failed because the stopcock was closed.
"The two drivers and the conductor did not check the condition of the stopcock carefully before leaving Alishan Station," Luo said. "That's why the train's brakes failed when the train was traveling down the gradient."
Luo excluded the possibility that the train derailed because of overloading or track problems.
The Chiayi District Court refused a prosecutors' request to detain the two train drivers early yesterday morning. Nevertheless, Luo said the train's conductor and drivers would be sent before the court again on a charge of professional negligence.
Meanwhile, Huang Yu-hsing (黃裕星), director of COA's Forestry Bureau, held a press conference to respond to local media reports that the accident took place because the four-carriage train might be overloaded.
Some reports said that each carriage could only carry 25 passengers; therefore the capacity of the train should have only been 100 passengers whereas there were about 190 passengers aboard Saturday afternoon.
Huang said that the capacity of each carriage was in fact 40 seated and 10 standing passengers meaning that each train could carry 200 people.
There were certainly fewer than 200 aboard the train at the time of the accident, Huang said.
COA Chairman Lee Chin-lung (李金龍) apologized yesterday to the victims and their families and promised to increase the amount of compensation available.
"The family of each fatality can claim compensation as high as NT$7.1 million," Lee said. This compensation includes NT$4.1 million from the railway system's travel insurance and NT$2.4 million from the COA.
On top of this the COA will also give each family of a fatality NT$400,000 for a funeral and NT$200,000 condolence money.
The COA distributed yesterday a total of NT$8 million in compensation to families of the dead and the injured.
Moreover, Lee Jen-chyun (李健全), vice chairman of COA, said the operation of the railway will continue to be suspended until the cause of the tragedy is fully understood.
"The COA will also pay for every passenger's medical costs incurred in the accident," Lee said.
Also see story:
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
OTHER OPTIONS: Given possible US intervention and Taiwanese counterattacks, China might opt to blockade Taiwan or take its outlying islands instead of an all-out invasion A US think tank has urged Taiwan to adopt a “hellscape” strategy that would flood the Taiwan Strait with drones and other uncrewed systems to deter invasion by China. In its report, Hellscape for Taiwan, published on Thursday, the Center for a New American Security said Taipei’s asymmetric defense approach — often described as a “porcupine strategy” — needs to evolve to keep pace with the growing capabilities of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. The “hellscape” strategy involves saturating the air and waters around Taiwan with thousands of drones and other platforms capable of striking invading forces from multiple domains at once. Long-range
RSS