The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) driver who was operating Puyuma Express train No. 6432, which derailed in Yilan County on Oct. 21 last year, yesterday said that all evidence in his favor had either disappeared or was ignored by prosecutors.
The derailment left 18 people dead and 187 injured.
Accompanied by his attorneys, Yu Chen-chung (尤振仲) spoke to the public for the first time since the derailment at a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
He is to stand trial on Monday and has been charged with negligent homicide.
Yu had reported problems with the train to the train operation office, but the office still wanted him to drive the train, as he was given the key to the driver’s compartment on the Puyuma Express, his attorney, Yen Tao-chih (閻道至), said.
Yu had also recorded the train’s problems on a worksheet, but now it is nowhere to be found, Yen said, adding that surveillance footage showing that someone from the operation office had handed him the key was also gone.
The memory card that would show if the train’s tilting function was working normally before derailment was also damaged, Yu said.
Yu said that he had turned off the automatic train protection (ATP) system when the train passed through the Dashi Station (大溪) and immediately told the operation inspector about it, but there was no audio file of the conversation.
The recorded conversations that the TRA had presented to the media did not match what he remembered about the situation, he said.
There should also be fingerprints on the control buttons for air compressors and the throttle-braking system to prove that he was working to resolve the mechanical problems, but the prosecutors said they did not collect them, Yu said.
He said he spent about 43 minutes trying to resolve the problems with the air compressors, adding that he had been following instructions from an operation inspector and train deployment officer. He also said that he was asked to stop at Toucheng Station (頭城) three times and was told that a passenger had boarded the train by mistake.
Yu questioned the authenticity of audio files that the TRA shared, as they were made public four months after the derailment, adding that each file was saved with a different date.
Yu broke down in tears and had trouble speaking at one point.
“I hope that the victims can rest in peace and that their families learn the truth. The injured can fully recover, and survivors can go on with their lives. After what happened, I kept asking why I was not killed. I cried myself to sleep a lot and woke up in pain. I felt pain even when I breathed,” he said.
Yu said he hoped that the cause of the derailment would be found after the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board announced this week that it would broaden the scope of its investigation.
“Where did the board get its data? If its investigation is conducted based on the data provided by the TRA and prosecutors, what new discoveries can it make? How can it produce any valid result if it is using fake information and evidence?” he asked.
“Prosecutors accused the TRA of exposing its passengers to a high-risk environment over the past six years, but what about the drivers, conductors, on-board service personnel and cleaning crew? Have they not worked in a high-risk environment as well?” he said, adding that prosecutors should be investigating the TRA’s administrative errors.
The Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office said it followed legal procedures when investigating the evidence, including that which was favorable and unfavorable to the defendant.
“All the evidence that we have collected through dashboard cameras is to be displayed in court... We will let the evidence speak for itself,” the office said, adding that it respects the defendant’s opinion about the case.
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