51 killed as runaway truck derails train in Taiwan
AT least 51 passengers were killed and more than 100 injured when a packed train derailed in Taiwan.
With the express stuck partly in a tunnel, rescuers struggled for hours to scour smashed carriages – while survivors climbed out of windows and walked along the roof to safety.
It is thought the crash was caused by a ‘badly parked’ maintenance lorry rolling downhill on to the track.
One survivor told how ‘people just fell all over each other, on top of one another. It was terrifying. There were whole families there’.
Many deaths are believed to have been among those forced to stand because all seats were taken.
The express had 496 passengers aboard, many travelling for the traditional Tomb Sweeping Day – when families visit their ancestors’ graves to pay their respects. The crash is the island’s deadliest rail disaster in decades.
Minutes later, the train’s lead car crashed into it, according to Railways Administration official Weng Hui-ping, just before the train entered a tunnel.
The train was derailed near the Taroko Gorge scenic area on the first day of a long holiday weekend when many people were using Taiwan’s rail system. Images showed carriages wedged against the tunnel’s walls. Part of the wall of one carriage had smashed into a seat.
‘Many people were crushed under train seats in the collision. And there were other people on top of the seats. So those at the bottom were pressed and crushed and lost consciousness,’ a passenger with gauze taped to her elbow told Taiwanese broadcaster EBC, which did not give her name.
‘At the beginning, they still responded when we called them. But I guess they lost consciousness afterwards,’ she said.
The National Fire Service confirmed the death toll – which included the train’s young, newly married driver and the assistant driver – and said more than 100 people were injured.
Another male survivor said: ‘Everyone just went flying all over the place.’