Clues Sought in Japan Train Wreck; 78 Dead

Las Vegas Sun ^ | April 26, 2005 at 11:58:11 PDT | MARI YAMAGUCHI ASSOCIATED PRESS

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

AMAGASAKI, Japan (AP) -

0426japan-train Rescuers pulled two survivors - but also more bodies - from the gnarled wreckage of Japan's worst train crash in decades Tuesday, and investigators raided the rail operator's offices for clues about why the train skidded off the tracks, killing at least 78 people.

Power shovels picked at the piles of twisted railway cars, peeling away crushed metal to get into the two train cars that struck an apartment building in Monday's accident. Workers found more bodies Tuesday in the wreckage of the 580-passenger train, and an unknown number were still there, a police spokesman said.

At least 456 people were injured.

Agents swarmed eight offices of West Japan Railway Co., carting away cardboard boxes of documents. The inquiry into possible professional negligence has focused on the actions of the 23-year-old driver - who has not yet been accounted for - and the speed of the train.

National broadcaster NHK reported that police suspected the train was going 65 mph when it hit the curve where it derailed - well above the 43 mph speed limit.

Workers freed two survivors from the wreckage early Tuesday, and police said they did not expect to find anyone else alive. Hiroki Hayashi, 19, was pulled from a damaged car after surviving the night with the help of an intravenous drip and drinking water.

"I'm in pain, I can't take it anymore," he told his mother by cell phone after the crash, according to his 18-year-old brother Takamichi Hayashi.

Hiroki Hayashi had a leg injury and was hospitalized in stable condition.

Victims' relatives struggled to comprehend their loss.

"I wish it were only a nightmare," Hiroko Kuki, whose son Tetsuji was killed in the crash, told NHK. "I only saw him the night before ... I wish he were alive somewhere."

In northern Japan, the lead car of a passenger train jumped the tracks when it crashed into a trailer at a crossing at Nimori on Tuesday in the second derailment in two days. The trailer's driver was slightly hurt.

The seven-car train that crashed Monday in Amagasaki was packed with passengers when it derailed near this Osaka suburb and plunged into the first floor of an apartment complex.

Government inspectors launched their accident investigation Tuesday by examining the tracks. They also hoped to recover a recorder with data on the train's speed and other details at the time of the accident, said a Transportation Ministry inspector who identified himself only by his family name, Shimoda.

Monday's accident occurred at a curve after a straightaway. Passengers speculated that the driver may have been speeding to make up for lost time after overshooting the previous station.

The train had been nearly two minutes behind schedule, company officials said.

The driver - identified as Ryujiro Takami - got his train operator's license in May 2004. One month later, he overran a station and was issued a warning for his mistake, railway officials and police said.

They were investigating the case as possible professional negligence by the railway, a prefectural police spokesman said on condition of anonymity.

Tsunemi Murakami, the railway's safety director, said he instructed his employees to cooperate fully with police.

Deadly train accidents are rare in Japan. Monday's accident was the worst rail disaster in nearly 42 years in this safety-conscious country, which is home to one of the world's most complex, efficient and heavily traveled rail networks. A three-train crash in November 1963 killed 161 people in Tsurumi, outside Tokyo.

Five people were killed and 33 were injured in March 2000, when a Tokyo subway hit a derailed train. An accident killed 42 people in April 1991 in Shigaraki, western Japan.

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Count continues to climb!

[Hegemony Cricket]

Aum Shinrickyo? (sp?)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

??

[maestro]

.......This was NOT an al-Qaeda terrorist connected 9-11,......move on.....

[struggle]

>>>Monday's accident occurred at a curve after a straightaway. Passengers speculated that the driver may have been speeding to make up for lost time after overshooting the previous station.

This is exactly what I thought. Stopping within the 1 meter mark in the station takes a mixture of exact speed and brake control. Coming into a station to slowly or too quickly takes years of practice. Once a train driver starts to get even seconds behind on the clock, you know the stress must be piling up.

[cryptical]

Imagine how the kid who put a penny (yen?) on the track must be feeling about now.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Dangerous radical doomsday in Japan - check this link:

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/aums.html

[Kirkwood]

Japanese take immense pride in the precision of their train system. If the train is late by only seconds, they get very anxious. This is understandable when many trains run at high speed on the same track and are separated in time by mere minutes. During my last trip there, my travel itinerary was specified to the exact minute. I joked about it, but the Japanese take it very seriously unlike the Italians when the trains may be a half hour late or more.

[Hegemony Cricket]

Whoops - dangerous radical doomsday cult. Just wondered if they might be involved.

[struggle]

>>>Imagine how the kid who put a penny (yen?) on the track must be feeling about now.

Considering a 1-yen coin is made of very soft aluminum, I don't think anyone would worry.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Last Updated: Tuesday, 26 April, 2005, 17:30 GMT 18:30 UK

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Printable version

Japan rail crash death toll rises

The salvage operation is continuing at the crash site

Rescuers examining the mangled wreckage of the Japanese train which crashed on Monday have found more bodies, taking to 81 the number of confirmed dead.

The death toll at the site near Osaka is expected to climb, with an unknown number of victims still trapped.

Two survivors were found earlier on Tuesday, but police say they do not expect to find anyone else alive.

Data from a monitoring device on the train has confirmed witness reports that the train was travelling too fast.

In pictures: Crash aftermath Survivors tell of chaos

Its speed was found to be 100km/h (62mph), well above the 70km/h limit for the bend where it slammed into a block of flats.

Stones on the rail have also been given as a possible cause of the crash.

There were 580 passengers on board the train when it derailed in Amagasaki, 410km (255 miles) west of Tokyo.

Click here for crash map in more detail

The front two carriages were smashed and flattened against the nine-storey apartment block. Some 456 passengers were injured.

Late train

Investigators have been examining tracks at the site, looking for clues.

HAVE YOUR SAY In a country where late trains are a rarity, I was shocked to learn about this Jean-Yves, Osaka, Japan Send us your comments

Police also searched the offices of the railway company involved, looking for possible evidence of negligence.

A senior company official said its president, Takeshi Kakiuchi, would resign over the crash, according to local media reports.

Investigators said the driver, Ryujiro Takami, may have been trying to make up time after overrunning a station platform by 40m.

The operator, West Japan Railway, has confirmed that the train was running late.

Mr Takami is believed to be still on the train, but has failed to respond to attempts to contact him.

He was only 23 and relatively inexperienced, the company said.

It also reported that he had previously been reprimanded twice in his previous job as a conductor, and once last year as a driver for a platform overrun.

Second derailment

JAPAN'S RAIL SAFETY RECORD 1963: Freight train crashes into derailed commuter train in Tokyo, 161 people killed April 1991 - 42 killed when two trains collide near Shigaraki March 2000 - Tokyo subway train crashes into derailed train, killing five April 2005 - Crash near Osaka kills at least 78

Japan's railway system, used by nearly 60 million people every day, is widely considered to be one of the world's safest.

This is the worst rail accident in Japan since a three-train crash killed 161 near Tokyo in 1963.

On Tuesday a second passenger train derailed after hitting a truck at a crossing in Ibaraki prefecture, north of Tokyo.

The driver of the truck was slightly hurt but there were no immediate reports of any other injuries, the Associated Press news agency said.

JAPAN RAIL CRASH

1: Crash happened at 0020GMT at end of morning rush-hour

2: Seven-carriage train had 580 people aboard

3: Four of the carriages derailed (one not visible)

[struggle]

I doubt it. Shoko Asahara, the former leader of the group was kind of a Koresh/Jones figure. Once he was arrested and put in jail, his group splintered and almost disappeared. I believe that they renamed their group Aleph, and are basically a joke.

Religious cults are not so much a threat in Japan anymore. There was, in fact, a VERY funny and revealing T.V. sitcom in Japan that showed how cults fooled people into believing, aptly named "Trick".

[struggle]

>>>Investigators said the driver, Ryujiro Takami, may have been trying to make up time after overrunning a station platform by 40m.

I think it's pretty easy to make out what happened. 40 meters is almost 150 ft! He must have been losing seconds every stop (the train was express, so this is almost unthinkable), and the guy pulls into Tsukaguchi going a high speed. He loses 2-3 minutes reversing back into the station, and then plows on to his last stop in Amagasaki to try to save his reputation. I'm sure the warning he had been given before didn't help.

During my years watching the Osaka train system, local trains are usually driven by the new guys, and the more express the train is the more experienced the drivers are. Some of the Hankyu 6300 drivers stop within millimeters of the stop line.

JR is going to be hurting big time from this, because people from Takarazuka will bike the extra mile to the Hankyu line to get to Osaka. JR's reputation is shot, but as the former centralized train line of Japan, what's to expect?

Thanks for the post Ernest!

[Hegemony Cricket]

Thanks for the info - good example of why FR beats the pants off MSM every single day!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the update!

[Ronin]

I take three different train lines to get to work and to get home daily -- Inokashira, Chuo and Yamanote. From now on, I will never ride in the the first three or four cars of a train.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks for the post!