A Taiwanese tourist was killed on Thursday by a limited express train while posing for photographs with three others using train tracks as backdrop at a train station in a small town in Japan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday.
The accident occurred at about 9am at Wakai Station in Shimanto, a town in Takaoka District of Kochi Prefecture, when one of the four was taking pictures of the others, including Ou Ying-yu (歐婷玉), the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported yesterday, citing Japanese media reports.
Ou, 40, was fatally struck, while her friends were lucky to escape, with one suffering minor ankle injury, when the train failed to brake in time, the report said.
The train involved in the crash could operate at a maximum speed of 120kph, equivalent to the maximum speed of the Tzuchiang-class (自強號) train in Taiwan.
It is owned by Tosa Kuroshio Railway Co and runs between Kubokawa and Nakamura stations without stopping at Wakai Station, according to the report.
An emergency brake on the train was applied 300m from Wakai Station when the train driver saw the tourists on the tracks, the report said.
Ou was rushed to a hospital, but doctors were unable to save her, the ministry said, adding that her family in Taiwan and relatives in Tokyo have been informed of her death.
There are signs and warning devices along the tracks that warn tourists to stay off the tracks in English and in Japanese, the ministry said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
RSS