The driver of a Puyuma Express train involved in a deadly derailment in October last year has been listed for administrative punishment for the first time, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said on Monday.
Railway authorities had been waiting for the results of an investigation by prosecutors to add 10 people to a group of 20 already disciplined for the accident, but they have now decided to list them, even though the investigation has not been completed.
The latest group consists of train driver Yu Chen-chung (尤振仲) and nine other Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) employees, Wang said.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications felt it necessary to add the driver to the list after the case was reopened by Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍), who took office on Jan. 14, Wang said.
Lin was unhappy with the administrative penalties given to the group of 20, saying they were too light.
The Railway Bureau last month recommended a second round of punishments, but Lin rejected them again on the grounds that no changes were made to the original disciplinary measures.
Lin instructed Wang to come up with a new list, and Wang said that after six internal meetings, the ministry decided to punish the group of 10 TRA employees.
The recommended punishments were not made public and must be approved by Lin and the Executive Yuan, Wang said.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that the ministry also stiffened the “demerits” and “reprimands” given to some of the original 20 TRA employees punished late last year.
Among them were former TRA directors-general Jason Lu (鹿潔身), Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) and Frank Fan (范植谷), but sources named only Fan, who is now retired, the report said.
The tougher penalties could affect Fan’s pension.
The ministry would not confirm the stiffer penalties.
An report on the crash released by an Executive Yuan investigation task force at the end of November last year held the driver partially responsible for the accident, as he had turned off an automatic train protection system, which prevents trains from speeding, without informing the control center in a timely manner.
He increased the train’s speed after it underwent power problems he believed to be caused by malfunctioning air compressors, investigators said.
The Puyuma Express No. 6432 derailed in Yilan in northeastern Taiwan while traveling at nearly twice the permissible speed limit as it entered a curve, leaving 18 people dead and 200 injured.
However, the report said that the driver’s actions were taken under extenuating circumstances, including the mechanical malfunction, the TRA’s poor troubleshooting ability and support, and a lack of standard operating procedures.
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