Ex-bosses not guilty over Japan’s 2005 train crash

TOKYO: Three former presidents of one of Japan’s biggest rail operators were cleared of responsibility for a 2005 train crash that killed more than 100 people in the nation’s worst rail disaster in half a century.

Yesterday, the three former heads of West Japan Railway (JR West) were all found not guilty of professional negligence over the smash in the western city of Amagasaki, near Kobe, the Kobe District Court ruled.

The accident happened when a commuter train jumped the tracks on a tight bend during the morning rush hour.

It ploughed into a residential tower, leaving the driver and 106 passengers dead and injuring 550 people.

The designated attorney, who played a prosecution role after prosecutors dropped the case, had demanded a jail term, arguing that the three – Masataka Ide, Shojiro Nanya and Takeshi Kakiuchi – should have anticipated the danger.

The attorney also claimed that the accused had failed to take proper safety precautions, such as installing a device that could automatically stop a train from travelling too fast.

However, the court ruled that the three did not have proper opportunities to recognise the danger and that they were also not legally obliged to install such a device when the accident occurred. — AFP