Sumitomo Corp is not liable for damage caused by the derailment of Puyuma Express No. 6432 in 2018 and does not need to pay compensation to the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), the Taipei District Court said yesterday.
The nation’s largest railway operator was seeking NT$610 million (US$22.01 million) from the Tokyo-based train manufacturer after the Taitung-bound express crashed on Dec. 21, 2018, near Sinma (新馬) Station in Yilan County’s Suao Township (蘇澳), killing 18 people and injuring more than 200.
“We have yet to receive the official ruling from the court, but we will consult our lawyers before considering further legal action,” the TRA said after the ruling.
Photo: Wang Meng-lun, Taipei Times
The TRA’s lawsuit said that the derailment occurred because of an ill-designed air compressor and a missing connection between the automatic train protection (ATP) and telemonitoring systems.
It was seeking compensation from Sumitomo for the casualties caused by the derailment, as well as for damage to the train, railway facilities and its business, the TRA said.
Sumitomo said that the air compressor malfunctioned on the day of the crash because the TRA failed to conduct thorough maintenance of the train and regularly replace parts, not because the air compressor’s design was flawed.
“The telemonitoring system, which monitors the ATP system, is not designed to slow down a train or reactivate the ATP when it is turned off,” the manufacturer said. “Train drivers’ strict adherence to the speed limit set for each railway section is the only way to ensure that a train maintains a safe operating speed.”
The court ruled in Sumitomo’s favor, saying that the Puyuma Express overturned and derailed because of excessive speed.
There was no causal link between the malfunctioning air compressor and the derailment, the court said.
A CECI Engineering Consultants report, which the TRA submitted as evidence, showed that the air compressor was only a remote cause of the crash, not a direct cause, the court said.
The TRA in 2013 completed testing the tilting trains it purchased from Sumitomo and gave its full acceptance of purchases on Dec. 23, 2014, the court said.
From 2014 to 2018, the railway agency had not fully tested the connection between the ATP and telemonitoring systems, nor had it detected any abnormality with the ATP system, the court said.
The damage caused by the derailment was the result of human behavior and poorly functioning machines, it said.
“Even if the ATP system had been connected properly to the telemonitoring system and the telemonitoring system could detect a deactivated ATP, it would not have prevented the crash, which was the result of years of systemic dysfunction in the TRA,” the court said.
On Oct. 18, the Yilan District Court sentenced train driver Yu Chen-chung (尤振仲) to four years and six months in jail for negligence leading to the crash.
Prosecutors have appealed the decision, which is being reviewed by the Taiwan High Court.
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