Posted on 04/24/2005 8:33:58 PM PDT by srm913
16 dead as Japanese train derails
TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A commuter train has derailed and ploughed into an apartment building at a railway crossing in western Japan on Monday, killing at least 16 people and injuring some 200 others, police say.
The cause of the accident is under investigation.
The seven-car commuter train operated by West Japan Railway Co also hit an automobile at the crossing near Amagasaki, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Tokyo, but it was not immediately clear if the car was hit before or after the derailment.
It was not immediately known whether the victims were on the train or inside the apartment.
Japan's public broadcaster NHK said the train collided with a car in between train stations while it was running at the speed of 70 kilometers per hour (43 miles per hour).
NHK showed the lead car of the train, which had skidded into a nearby apartment building, with three cars toppled sideways.
"There was violent shakings, and the next moment I was thrown to the floor, several meters (yards) away from where I was sitting, and I landed on top of a pile of other people," said Tatsuya Akashi, a passenger who was on third or fourth car, in an interview with NHK.
"I didn't know what happened, and there were many people bleeding," he added. "Passengers, many of them high school students, were panicking."
Japan is home to one of the world's most complex and heavily traveled rail networks, but such derailings are rare.
An earthquake in 2004 caused a bullet train to derail -- the first since the high speed trains went into service 40 years ago.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Oh no.....
Prayers for these people.
Interesting. Planes and buildings, trains and buildings.
Prayers going up.
25 dead and 214 injured so far according to Japanese websites. Very rare for Japan:
http://www.asahi.com/national/update/0425/TKY200504250075.html?t1
How about 10 km (6 miles) west of Osaka? Do these dimwit news reporters really think international readers have never heard of Japan's second largest city?
This is like describing Naperville, Illinois as 810 miles west of New York.
Amagasaki.
I used to ride that train (Gakken-toshi line) to work everyday from Kyobashi from 2001-2003. This is a very rare accident and Amagasaki is a strange place for it to happen. In fact, it is almost unthinkable. I have ridden Kansai trains for years and they have been anything BUT dangerous, even JR trains.
Oinori wo shimasu!
They may have heard of Osaka , but haven't a clue as to where it is .
Prayers for the surviving injured, and prayers for the families and friends of all the victims.
This isn't exactly China, but it's on your side of the world.
I'm not sure if you're a Japan aficionado, but I thought I should ping you about this.
>>>How about 10 km (6 miles) west of Osaka? Do these dimwit news reporters really think international readers have never heard of Japan's second largest city?
Well, I have to tell you, I lived in Osaka for a year, and most people don't know where the hell that is. Apparently, this includes CNN.
Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)
BTW, you read Golgo 13 too, huh?
That manga is in every shokudo and ramenya in Japan.
I kinda liked the train system there. I wish I could commute by rail here, but the rail systems here suck.
What time was it there when this happened?
" but the rail systems here suck."
You can say THAT again ...Last time I rode on an Amtrak train from Boston to New London ( 3 years ago ) I felt I was back in the 1950's ( after having lived in Japan for 15 years and riding the Shinkansen and other high tech / high speed trains ) ...Archaic !
What time ?
9:20 a.m.
BBC has the death toll at 37:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4480031.stm
The tracks horrible but Amtrak itself is very nice IMO. I enjoy it if I'm not in a hurry.
Since 1981!
I know little about the Japanese commuter rail system, so what I say is speculation. But, after 32 1/2 years as a locomotive engineer, I do know a little something about trains. If the engine was at the rear on the train and pushing, the leading car was very light compared to the locomotive and would be relatively easy to derail if it hit anything.
As far as I can tell from the photos, the engine drew its power from overhead wires [low polution] and the locomotive would be lighter and cleaner than a diesel-electric. A passanger [or empty] car on the front of the train car is pretty much free to move fore/aft, side to side and up and down as the terrain and track changes. If the leading car is a passenger car (with engineer controls) instead of a locomotive, it is much lighter and likely more easily derailed, by hitting a car that goes under the leading end of the lead car, than if hit by a locomotive.
The very few automobiles I hit with locomotives slid down the tracks rather than turned over.
I have no doubt that my brother engineer did everything in his power to avoid the collision and stop the train. I great concern is for him and his passengers.
ol' hoghead
" If the leading car is a passenger car (with engineer controls) instead of a locomotive "
I live in Japan . The leading cars on all the trains are passenger cars .
Just thinking, maybe a rumor will start that it was sabotage by Chinese operatives?
Ah, memories. The white-gloved hand of shiroshi-san pushing on my back, in order to cram as many people into the car...
Asahi Shimbun (in Japanese):here.
The toll is now 37, and CNN has updated the headline to "37 Dead As Japanese Train Derails."
It's your call to update the FR headline or not.
-srm
Prayers for the families who've just lost a loved one.
TOKYO (AP) -
A crowded commuter train derailed and plowed into an apartment building in western Japan on Monday, turning passenger cars into twisted clumps of metal. At least 49 people were killed and some 340 injured, officials said.
The seven-car commuter train was carrying 580 passengers when it jumped the tracks, wrecking an automobile in its path before slamming into a nine-story apartment complex just yards away. Two of the four derailed cars were flattened against the wall of the building, and hundreds of rescue workers and police swarmed the wreckage and tended to the injured.
The cause of the crash in an urban area near Amagasaki, about 250 miles west of Tokyo, was not immediately known, but survivors said excessive speed may have been a factor. Attention focused on the inexperienced, 23-year-old driver.
"There was a violent shaking, and the next moment I was thrown to the floor ... and I landed on top of a pile of other people," passenger Tatsuya Akashi told national broadcaster NHK. "I didn't know what happened, and there were many people bleeding."
The Hyogo state police said at least 49 people were killed, and train operator West Japan Railway Co. said at least 343 people had been taken to hospitals. It was not clear how many of the dead were passengers or if bystanders and apartment residents were among the victims.
The accident was the worst rail disaster in 14 years in Japan, which is home to one of the world's most complex and heavily traveled rail networks. An accident killed 42 people in April 1991 in Shigaraki, western Japan.
"There are many theories but we don't know for sure what caused the accident," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said. "The prime minister instructed us to respond with urgency."
The train operator, West Japan Railway Co., apologized.
"Our most important task now is to rescue the passengers from the accident and we are doing our best," West Japan Railway Co. President Takeshi Kakiuchi told reporters.
Survivors said the force of the derailment sent passengers tumbling through the inside of the cars. Photos taken by an NHK reporter aboard the train showed passengers piled on the floor and some clawing to escape from the busted shells of the cars.
NHK said the train collided with a car in between train stations while it was running at a speed of 43 mph, though a railway official said that figure wasn't certain.
Investigators struggled to come up with reasons for the crash. Tsunemi Murakami, the railway's safety director, estimated that the train would have had to have been going 82 mph to have jumped the track purely because of excessive speed.
He said it still was not certain how fast the train was going at the time of the accident.
The driver's inexperience may also have been a factor. He only had 11 months experience and had committed a previous overrun at a station in June 2004, officials said.
Authorities mobilized for a speedy rescue. The central government in Tokyo dispatched Self-Defense Force soldiers to the disaster scene to assist.
--
"Train Derails in Western Japan, Killing 49"
please consider adding (deathtoll now 49) to the headline
"Our most important task now is to rescue the passengers from the accident and we are doing our best," West Japan Railway Co. President Takeshi Kakiuchi told reporters.
In Tokyo, there was a derailment and collision in March of 2000 at Nakameguro station on the Hibiya line, the first in the history of Tokyo's subway system. There were five deceased and many injuries; in the wake, the President of TRTA resigned. While most of the factors were attributable to a very unfortunate combination of technical problems, there were at least a few reasons that were human error. Among the human errors cited were that (1) in December of 1999, workers had over-polished a portion of the rails (.2 millimeters was the limit of polishing, but the workers shaved off up to 1 millimeter), and (2) the rails had been noted to be out of true a few months earlier in a routine inspection, but there had been no remediation of this.
Prosecutors looked at the situation for any criminal culpability, but found none and contacted the bereaved families to let them know.
Last year, on the fourth anniversary of the accident, the President of the TRTA and the families had a small ceremony at the memorial to the victims.
Here a few articles that I found about that accident.
A Japan Policy and Politics article, July of 2000.
I lived in Japan for two years, at Yokota AB, and I could never remember where Osaka was until that big earthquake in '95.
I used to go through Amagasaki station twice a day going to and from work myself (1999-2002). I took a different line from there to get to Inadera though.
I lived in Japan for over 9 years and rode the trains extensively both in the countryside and in the cities for that whole time. The trains in Japan are VERY safe, but, as this shows, accidents do occasionally happen.
It will be interesting to see what the actual cause of the accident was. I too wonder if the signal lights were working properly. If they were, the driver should have had ample time to slow and stop the train.
Take care,
Ruck
Believe it was only going 43 miles per hour.
I doubt it. If any sabotage happened, it would be in Tokyo, where the Chinese are everywhere. It looks like the 'unexperienced engineer' theory holds the most water. These guys work the whole day 5am-12pm, and then take a day off, and inexperience or cockness mixed with fatigue could explain a lot.
I personally knew a strange fellow who was a JR Nishi-Nihon worker and had a lobster hand (3 middle fingers missing) thanks to a Shinkansen (bullet train) coupling. While train driving is treated with extreme professionalism and care in Japan, all it takes is just one missed second.
bttt
Thanks for the post.
Fox now puts the death toll at 57.
But no matter how many lives lost -- still a terrible tragedy.
I thank both of you for this information. I based my comment on the way short line commuter trains are run in Calif. The Japanese have a higher regard for safety than American railroads.
As we can see with the growing internet, with Free Republic's own maturity and the maturity of it's netcitizens, that kind of crap is way on the wane.
Prayers for those sad, distressed people and their souls. O-inori shimasu.
I've taken that kind of Japanese local train in that kind of Japanese neighborhood many a time. I can sympathize with those still alive and stuck on such trains, too.
Just for the food and the shotokan training (which the new baby has put on hiatus) but thanks for the ping. I do follow accident investiagtions. How very sad and tragic this was. I've been praying for those affected.
Toll is now up to 59 dead, 441 injured out of 580 passengers. They're still digging through the rubble at this hour, sadly.
What a terrible tragedy. In a country known for its technological advances, it's hard to believe such a thing could occur...but it has. There is always room for human failure.
I can't believe they build apartment buildings ao close to the tracks, esp. with high-speed train. But I kow they have limited space.
I used to muse, while riding the Myrtle Ave. elevated in Brooklyn to classes at St. John's University (the el tracks passed numerous 4-story apt. houses) ...what would happen if this thing went off the tracks. You could actually see into the apartments and watch women cooking, men reading their evening papers, etc. It was that close.
I empathize with our Japanese friends, and send them my sympathy and prayers.
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