The discovery on Thursday of bone fragments and personal effects in a burned-out train two years after the Taroko Express No. 408 derailment prompted Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) to apologize yesterday.
The ministry has erred and will seek to ameliorate matters, Wang said after members of a group of family members of the people killed in the April 2, 2021, crash in Hualien County’s Sioulin Township (秀林) found bone fragments, and personal effects, including watches and cellphones, during an inspection of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) cars.
Fourty-nine people were killed and more than 200 were injured in the crash.
Photo: Cheng Wei-chi, Taipei Times
The ministry on Thursday invited experts on the derailment of a West Japan Railway Co train in Amagasaki on April 25, 2005 — which killed 107 people — as well as family members of those killed in the Sioulin derailment to look through the cars.
Members of the group said they were shocked the TRA had failed to collect everything from the cars.
The Railway Police Bureau and lawyers of the families yesterday combed through the cars and found four more bone fragments, suspected to be from a skull.
The Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office said that it has delivered the pieces to a forensics lab to determine who they were from.
The TRA has not conducted a sweep since the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board concluded their inspections, Wang said.
He said it was a grave matter and highly disrespectful to the deceased that the TRA had not conducted a full sweep.
Wang Wei-chun (王薇君), spokeswoman of Taroko Tears, a group for family members of those who died, said she hoped the discovery of the bones and personal items would help focus public attention on the need for TRA safety reforms.
Finding the items should be a warning to the Executive Yuan that its disaster prevention and processing procedures still need work, she said.
Now is not the time to be pointing fingers, she said, urging the authorities to quickly identify who the bones belonged to and deliver them to their proper resting place — 881 days after the incident.
Chen Peng-nian (陳鵬年), a Taroko Tears member who was in the crash, said many in the group were shocked and saddened at finding the bone fragments.
Chen said he understands how hard the search-and-rescue effort was, and that it was impossible that every body part would be accounted for.
However, the authorities should be more thorough, he added.
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