The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board yesterday said it would publish information decoded from the Compact Flash (CF) memory cards retrieved from a Puyuma Express train that derailed in Yilan County on Oct. 21 last year, killing 18 passengers and injuring 212 other people.
The draft of a final investigative report is to be completed in September next year, which would include analysis of data collected from the accident, potential causes and the board’s recommendations for the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) to improve safety, it said.
An Executive Yuan probe into the cause of the accident and its conclusions have failed to satisfy families of the victims and the public.
Photo: CNA
The board, which was established on Aug. 1, passed a resolution on Sept. 6 to provide supplementary information about the accident.
The board has reexamined the evidence and materials transferred from the Railway Bureau and the Yilan District Court, and decoded information recorded on the automatic train protection system, the train control and management system, and CF cards from damaged train cabins, it said.
The board added that it has established a timeline of the events leading to the accident based on footage from the dashboard camera and CCTVs, and recorded conversations at the train driver’s room.
It had also visited the TRA’s depot in Taoyuan to inspect the damaged train.
What the board is ascertaining is the speed at which the train was traveling before the accident occured, the condition of the railway tracks, the efficiency of the air compressors and its effect on the train’s operation, whether the train control and management system interface was driver-friendly and the TRA’s driver training program.
The board has completed decoding data from the CF cards and investigators have identified a problem in the cards’ design, board chairman Young Hong-tsu (楊宏智) said.
“We have about five minutes of data missing on the CF cards. We were not able to retrieve it not because we lost it during data download or do not have the ability to extract it, but because the CF card was not designed to record such information,” he said.
Young added that identifying the memory card design problem does not mean that it was the cause of the derailment or that the train’s design was flawed.
The missing information would not affect the conclusion of the investigation, he said, adding that the board would compare the data retrieved with other audio-visual data to make sure that it does not miss any important information.
The board also found that the train’s heat exchanger was covered in grass, which was unusual, he said.
The board would ascertain if the Japanese train manufacturer has indicated any potential problem with heat exchangers in its train maintenance manual, he said.
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
The Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau audited six hotels in an effort to prevent price gouging ahead of Korean band BTS’ concert tour in the city scheduled for Nov. 19, 21 and 22 this year. The bureau on Friday said that the audits — conducted in response to allegations of unfair pricing posted on social media — found no wrongdoing. These establishments included the local branches of Chateau de Chine, Hotel Nikko, My Humble House, and Grand Hai Lai, it said, adding that the Consumer Protection Commission would have penalized price gougers had the accusations been substantiated. The bureau said the Tourism Development Act
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan yesterday was an independent event and part of a stress-adjustment process. The earthquake occurred at 4:47pm, with its epicenter at sea about 45.4km south of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 5.9km, the CWA said. The quake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in several townships in Yilan and neighboring Hualien County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the CWA said. Lin Po-yu (林柏佑), a division chief at the CWA's Seismological Center, told a news conference
RSS