At least 50 people were killed yesterday in one of the nation’s worst railway crashes, when a train partially derailed in Hualien County after colliding with a vehicle that had rolled down a hill.
Taroko Express No. 408, which left New Taipei City’s Shulin Railway Station and was expected to arrive at Hualien Railway Station at 9:39am, struck a crane truck at 9:28am as the train was about to enter the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林), said the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), which operates the train.
As of press time, 50 people, including the driver and assistant driver, were confirmed dead and 146 injured.
Photo: CNA
One French national was among those killed, while an Australian and two Japanese had minor injuries.
With the train partly stuck in the tunnel, people climbed out of windows and walked along the train’s roof to reach safety.
The train carried 496 people, including four TRA personnel, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) told a news conference last night.
Photo courtesy of a reader
The southbound train of eight cars was about to enter the tunnel when the crane truck slid down a nearby slope, colliding with the train’s No. 8 car just outside the tunnel ingress.
The impact partially derailed the train, which continued into the tunnel before colliding with the tunnel’s interior walls.
The six leading cars piled up in the crash and most fatalities occurred in the No. 7 and No. 8 cars, which were crushed from the impact, the agency said.
Photo copied by Lin Chia-tung, Taipei Times
Hualien County Police Bureau Commissioner Tsai Ting-hsien (蔡丁賢) confirmed that as of 4pm, police were questioning the truck’s driver, surnamed Lee (李), who was not in the vehicle at the time of the crash.
Investigators suspect that Lee did not engage the hand brake before parking the vehicle at a worksite servicing a separate TRA rail line on a hill adjacent to the tunnel, he said.
The TRA said Lee should not have been on the site, as all work on that line had been suspended to avoid crews from interfering with train operations over the four-day Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, which began yesterday.
Photo: New Taipei City Fire Department / AFP
The subcontractor in charge of the work had been informed not to be on site, but Lee, the site supervisor, had apparently decided to inspect the site, the agency said.
Lee’s reason for conducting the inspection on an off-day and for driving about the site in a construction vehicle remains unclear, it added.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) and Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) were at the site of incident.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Su expressed sadness and regret for those killed and their families, while Lin apologized in a statement.
Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had instructed all relevant government agencies to coordinate on relief work and demanded a thorough investigation into the incident.
More than 40 countries, including all 15 of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, expresssed sympathy following the tragedy.
Additional reporting by Hua Meng-ching, Yang Yuan-ting, Yu Tai-lang and agencies
This story has been updated since it was first published.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to start construction of its 1.4-nanometer chip manufacturing facilities at the Central Taiwan Science Park (CTSP, 中部科學園區) as early as October, the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) reported yesterday, citing the park administration. TSMC acquired land for the second phase of the park’s expansion in Taichung in June. Large cement, construction and facility engineering companies in central Taiwan have reportedly been receiving bids for TSMC-related projects, the report said. Supply-chain firms estimated that the business opportunities for engineering, equipment and materials supply, and back-end packaging and testing could reach as high as
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Democratic nations should refrain from attending China’s upcoming large-scale military parade, which Beijing could use to sow discord among democracies, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Shen You-chung (沈有忠) said. China is scheduled to stage the parade on Wednesday next week to mark the 80th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II. The event is expected to mobilize tens of thousands of participants and prominently showcase China’s military hardware. Speaking at a symposium in Taichung on Thursday, Shen said that Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) recently met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a visit to New Delhi.
FINANCES: The KMT plan to halt pension cuts could bankrupt the pension fund years earlier, undermining intergenerational fairness, a Ministry of Civil Service report said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus’ proposal to amend the law to halt pension cuts for civil servants, teachers and military personnel could accelerate the depletion of the Public Service Pension Fund by four to five years, a Ministry of Civil Service report said. Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) on Aug. 14 said that the Act Governing Civil Servants’ Retirement, Discharge and Pensions (公務人員退休資遣撫卹法) should be amended, adding that changes could begin as soon as after Saturday’s recall and referendum. In a written report to the Legislative Yuan, the ministry said that the fund already faces a severe imbalance between revenue