Posted on 04/24/2005 8:33:58 PM PDT by srm913
" 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
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