The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) has just had another major accident, this time involving the Taroko Express, the cruel irony being that it was caused by a subcontractor working on the agency’s six-year safety improvement project.
The train, traveling without incident until it reached the section of the track onto which a crane truck had slid, was involved in a tragic collision, claiming many lives on board.
The debate in the media has focused on why a subcontractor’s vehicle was parked on a slope next to the track, but the question is not why events unfolded as they did, it is why the subcontractor and the TRA chose to disregard “Murphy’s law.”
This construction project started three years ago and, during that period, the driver might well have parked his vehicle on that slope countless times, and the very idea that it could lead to an accident would have left his subconscious mind a long time ago.
Things you would never believe could happen will do so when you least expect it, often to devastating effect, which is the very definition of Murphy’s law. In their subconscious, neither the subcontractor nor the project managers ever thought that parking a vehicle on a slope would cause an accident, and even if they had their standard operating procedures to follow, in the absence of any awareness of Murphy’s law, it was only a matter of time before a “gray rhino” event occurred.
TRA data showed that over the past decade, there had been 99 derailments, an average of almost 10 a year, strongly suggesting that the agency really lacks a concept of Murphy’s law. That the safety improvement project could be postponed shows that safety was not a priority for the agency.
The TRA is a state-owned operation and undoubtedly has all kinds of regulations in place. Where is the awareness of the importance of not cutting corners, or of the need to keep up with the times, especially in matters involving passenger safety, which ought to be a priority, no matter how small they appear to be. It is of paramount importance that as soon as there is the slightest error or concern, the entire passenger safety apparatus is rebuilt from the beginning.
Even though the TRA is state-owned, with the strengths and weaknesses that brings to its operation, privatization, while an option, is not without risks. If the company is to address the flaws in its corporate culture, it cannot superficially adopt privatization as a kind of political strategy: It needs to completely revamp itself, from the inside out.
It is understandable that Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has offered to resign, as his predecessor, Wu Hong-mo (吳宏謀), did following the 2018 Puyuma Express derailment.
However, Lin should stay the course and lead the TRA to deal with the gray rhinos threatening passenger safety. To resign at this point would give off the signal that the TRA is to proceed as before, unaware of Murphy’s law.
Lin should announce that things are not business as usual at the TRA, and that he has resolved, in the absence of any political calculation, to lead the reform of the agency, to reduce the number of accidents to zero, and to face up to any individual or situation that would get in the way of this, to divest the agency of its culture of complacency, and use this tragic incident as an opportunity to transform the TRA into an operation that does not jeopardize passenger safety.
Chen Chi-yuan is an associate professor at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology’s Institute of Financial and Economic Law.
Translated by Paul Cooper
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