Update: 49 Dead As Japanese Train Derails

CNN ^ | April 24, 2005

[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.

[srm913]

[Brad’s Gramma]

Oh no.....

Prayers for these people.

[edmond246]

Interesting. Planes and buildings, trains and buildings.

Prayers going up.

[DTogo]

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

[srm913]

Update: The death toll is now 25.
This from Channel NewsAsia:

TOKYO : At least twenty-five people were killed and 60 others injured Monday in western Japan when a train crashed into a car, sending one carriage hurtling into an apartment block, officials said. The train, which was carrying some 200 passengers, was travelling at 70 kilometres an hour in Hyogo prefecture when it hit the vehicle at a railway crossing, a spokesman for West Japan Railway Co said. Three carriages were derailed in the collision, with one smashing into the side of an apartment building in Amagasaki town, some 400 kilometres west of Tokyo. Emergency crews rushed to the scene to free trapped survivors of the morning rush-hour accident. An employee of the national broadcaster Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) was in the third car of the train and said he could hear voices from the first and second carriages which were badly damaged by the force of the crash. "I could hear voices of people in the carriage that hit the building. Rescue workers and emergency officials are using cutters to open the train and to pull people out," he said. Television footage showed a young man with blood stains over his face as a woman shrieked in the background. A businessman who was taking the train to work told NHK of the panic following the collision. "The crash caused an enormous noise. People in the train - many of them were high school students - were in a panic," he said. Train accidents are rare in Japan, where high-speed railways are one of the main forms of inter-city transport. In July 2003, 36 people were injured when a train derailed on the southern island of Kyushu after large rocks fell onto the track. One month later, the driver of a car and four train passengers were injured when an express train carrying some 300 passengers hit a car in western Japan. In October, one of Japan's famous high-speed bullet trains - the Shinkansen - derailed for the first time in its 40-year history due to a powerful earthquake in the central prefecture of Niigata. - AFP /ch

[jdm]

Death toll now 28. 239 taken to hospitals.

More info.

[Vigilanteman]

. . .at the crossing near Amagasaki, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) west of Tokyo . . .

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.

[struggle]

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!

[sushiman]

They may have heard of Osaka , but haven't a clue as to where it is .

[bd476]

Prayers for the surviving injured, and prayers for the families and friends of all the victims.

[struggle]

Such memories.

[srm913]

This isn't exactly China, but it's on your side of the world.

[srm913]

I'm not sure if you're a Japan aficionado, but I thought I should ping you about this.

[srm913]

Oh dear...

According to CNN, the death toll is now 37... Prayers!

[struggle]

>>>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.

[DTogo]

SRM913, yes, this worth a ping. Struggle, o ko-san ga kawaii!

Japan * ping * (kono risuto ni hairitai ka detai wo shirasete kudasai : let me know if you want on or off this list)

[struggle]

>Struggle, o ko-san ga kawaii!

Terechau yo!
Amagasaki, home of yakuza and Downtown.

[struggle]

BTW, you read Golgo 13 too, huh?

That manga is in every shokudo and ramenya in Japan.

[USNBandit]

Oh God, I'm having flashbacks....I see visions of my head bobbing above a sea of black hair crammed into a rush hour train!

I kinda liked the train system there. I wish I could commute by rail here, but the rail systems here suck.

[CindyDawg]

What time was it there when this happened?