Taiwan Train Crash Kills Dozens Due to Derailing in a Tunnel

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Taiwan train crash kills dozens due to derailing in a tunnel

Around 50 people died in the Taiwan train crash, and dozens of people injured. The train was carrying around 500 people, derailed in a tunnel, and crashed. It was an eight-carriage train that crashed against a construction vehicle, which had slipped into the track and at the mouth of the tunnel.

The rescue team went through the damaged carriages to find survivors. Some of the people broke the train windows to escape the danger. 

Taiwan train crash kills dozens

The train that met with an accident was traveling from the capital of Taipei and going to Taitung. Most people were traveling for their annual holidays. As usual, the train had a lot of people and many of them standing.

The train one of the 408 trains that are fastest on that network. This type of train in Taiwan is safe to travel. The speed at which it can travel is 130 kilometers per hour. 

The Taiwan train crash was one of the worst rail disasters that the country has seen in decades. The President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, sent her condolences to the families of victims and ordered an investigation.

According to the reports from the National Fire Agency, around 494 people were traveling on the train. 50 of them were confirmed dead, while 66 injured and hospitalized.

The crash happened at around 9 am local time. Luckily, some people at the back of the train could escape unscathed. Around 100 people were rescued from the four front carriages. Those carriages were the most affected and had the maximum number of fatalities.

Survivor stories

One of the survivors reported that she felt a sudden jolt and fell on the floor. She then explained how they broke a window and climbed to the roof of the train to escape. One more woman said that she fell on the floor and hit her head. It was bleeding, and she was later rescued.

A traumatized woman of 50 explained the horrifying story. After the accident, she saw many trapped under the seats. She tried to walk out of her carriage while witnessing bodies lying dead around her.

The driver of the train died, among others. Images from the accident area show trucks full of flatbeds lying by tracks. There was a construction project ongoing at the north end of the tunnel. As per reports, the vehicle slipped on the tracks, and the train crashed against it.

Images of people on the stretcher started circulating. Some people escaped out with their belongings; they were trying to evacuate from the lowly affected carriages. Many injured people needed stretchers to be carried. 

The Premier of Taiwan, Su Tseng-chang, visited the site on Friday. The government is currently doing whatever possible to retrieve the injured people back in good health and investigate the matter.

Taiwan and transport safety

Taiwan has an advanced transportation system, and railway tracks cover a distance of more than 1000 km. Around 200 million people travel through trains every year in the country.

Taiwan is rare with such accidents of derailment. The massacre happened as the construction vehicle slipped into the tracks and the train was passing the tunnel, where it was present. 

The incident exhibits negligence of the people working at the time. Such similar incidents were:

  • Train derailment in 2018 happened due to a faulty speed alert. In this case, the driver was busy communicating with the command center and didn’t slow down before entering a curve. The accident killed 18 people.
  • There have been quite a number of deadly fires in factories and have left dormitories workers unsafe to live in.
  • In 2019, a bridge collapsed due to low maintenance and killed four migrant fishers on a boat.
  • In 2014, a chemical explosion happened due to the negligence of underground pipelines. It killed 32 people.

With the latest train crash incident, Taiwan is under question for safety and preventive measures for such accidents.

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