[ad_1]
(DONGSHAN COUNTY, Taiwan) – The Taiwanese president has called for the opening of a prompt and transparent investigation into the cause of the most serious train accident that has occurred in the island for nearly three decades, while the search of the derailed cars ended and the investigators examined the wreckage on Monday.
The Puyuma Express, eight cars, left the track turning in a corner where the maximum speed is 75 km / h. A video clip obtained by the local media showed the train hitting and flipping a beam and tearing metal structures over the tracks during its crash.
Eighteen people were killed and 187 wounded in the crash that damaged most cars and five were zigzagged to the left of the tracks. The rescuers searched the night for more casualties before the shift crews moved the derailed cars vertically for ease of investigation.
"Everyone cares a lot about the cause of the accident," said Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen in a statement from his office. "We therefore ask the investigative services to clarify as soon as possible the timing and the situation of the whole accident, from beginning to end, and to be able to give the citizens a report."
The report may take more than a day as investigators conduct interviews and check records, a spokesman for the Taiwan Railway Administration said on condition of anonymity. The speed of the train was not released due to the ongoing investigation, but was not ruled out as a cause.
The Taiwan Railways Administration has stated that it has not published any official video pending the investigation.
Survivors told the Central News Agency, the Taiwanese news agency, that the driver had tightened the emergency brakes several times before the train derailed. One of them told local TV reporters that the train had accelerated after taking the bend.
The accident investigators checked the evidence inside and under the wagons now standing. Yilan County prosecutor also examined the wreckage while his office had spoken to witnesses.
The 6-year-old trains were built to run at a particularly fast speed at 150 km / h to facilitate transportation in the more rugged parts of the island. They are designed to tilt during turns.
The Taiwanese railways bought Puyuma cars from the Japanese manufacturer Nippon Sharyo in 2011 for $ 260 million. The seller then said the trains were part of a $ 46 billion upgrade from the line that runs along the east coast of Taiwan.
The derailed train underwent its last inspection and major maintenance work in 2017, said Sunday the director of the Taiwanese Railways Lu Chieh-shen during a televised press conference.
Lu proposed to resign on Monday, an offer that is not unusual in Taiwan in such situations. It is uncertain whether his offer would be accepted or whether he would be invited to stay for the duration of the survey.
Five people killed, including a 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl, belonged to one family. Three students and two deceased teachers belonged to the same college.
Some passengers were crushed to death, said Defense Ministry spokesman Chen Chung-chi. Of the total wounded, seven were still receiving intensive hospital care on Monday morning, said Liu Ya-chih, county news liaison officer. Nobody had lethal wounds, she said.
The train was carrying more than 360 passengers on a popular weekend, from the outskirts of Taipei to the north to Taitung, a town on the southeast coast of Taiwan.
Rail service was partially restored on Monday.
In 1991, a train accident killed 30 people and Sunday's derailment is at least the third fatal road accident in Taiwan since 2003.
A tourist train spilled in the southern mountains in April 2011 after the fall of a large tree. Five Chinese visitors were killed. A train performing a test ignored a stop sign and crashed into another train in northeast Taiwan in June 2007. Five people were killed and 16 others injured.
And in March 2003, a train derailed near a popular hill station, killing 17 people and injuring more than 100 people. Investigators blamed brake failure.
___
The editors of AP Johnson Lai in Su'Ao, Taiwan, Yanan Wang in Beijing and Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok contributed to this report.
