39 dead after Chinese bullet trains collide

World Jul. 24, 2011 - 06:43AM JST ( 12 )

BEIJING —

Emergency workers battled on Sunday to rescue survivors from the mangled wreckage of two Chinese bullet trains involved in a high-speed collision which left 32 dead and nearly 200 injured, reports said.

The first train had been halted by a lightning strike and was rear-ended by the second, state media said, causing two carriages to fall off a viaduct in a disaster likely to raise fresh questions over the safety of China’s rapid rail expansion.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for “all-out efforts” to rescue injured passengers, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Railways Minister Sheng Guangzu, who was heading to the scene from Beijing, ordered an “in-depth investigation” into Saturday’s accident, the agency reported.

The high-speed service from Hangzhou to Wenzhou, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, was rammed from behind in Wenzhou’s Shuangyu town, China National Radio said.

It derailed and two of its carriages fell from an elevated section of track at around 8:50 p.m., Xinhua reported, citing local firefighting sources. Some 191 people were injured, it said.

Pictures posted on Chinese websites and microblogs showed a long rail carriage standing vertically, with one end leaning on the viaduct and the other resting on the ground about 20 meters below.

A second carriage was lying fully on the ground below the track, having apparently fallen completely off, with rescue personnel swarming over it.

The photos also showed mangled metal sections of one carriage and people being carried away from the scene, although it was not clear whether those victims were injured or dead.

Xinhua said the capacity of each train car was about 100 passengers.

China National Radio quoted an unnamed Shanghai Railway Bureau official who had gone to the scene as saying the first train was halted by a lightning strike.

Xinhua said the train itself had been struck by lightning but other reports suggested it may not have been a direct hit.

The first four coaches of the second train had also been knocked off the track by the force of the collision, Xinhua said.

The accident occurred less than a month after China inaugurated with great fanfare a new flagship $33 billion line from Beijing to Shanghai that halves the rail journey time between China’s two most important cities to five hours.

The line has suffered problems with delays caused by power outages, sparking a slew of criticism online and in Chinese media.

China has recently poured money into a further expansion of the network but the huge investments have spurred allegations of corruption and raised concerns over costs and whether corners were being cut on rail safety.

In April 2008, 72 people were killed and more than 400 injured when one train derailed and another collided with it in the eastern province of Shandong.

© 2011 Agence France-Presse

===

Jul 23, 12:00 PM EDT

Chinese state media say 11 dead in train accident

By SCOTT McDONALD
Associated Press
AP Photo
AP Photo/STR
World Video
Advertisement
Multimedia
Video photo gallery on trash in China
China celebrates 60th year
Panorama of Tiananmen Square
Remembering Tiananmen
A year after China quake
Migrant laborers struggle to find work
Checking Beijing's Air
China's morning exercises in parks
Exploring Chinese Cuisine
Beijing Architecture Changes For Games
Woman Rescues Homeless Quake Dogs
China Holds Funeral for Panda
China's 1-child Policy Causes Extra Pain
Map of Earthquake Zone in Central China
Entrepreneurs Move Into, Out of China
Olypmics in Beijing Highlight China's Water Woes
Foreign Buyers Head to China Despite Problems
Coal Use Produces Pollution, Illness
Coal Means Profit, Woes for China
China Extending Its Reach Around the World
In China, the Desert Closes In
Latest News
Chinese state media say 11 dead in train accident

12 years later, China's most-wanted sent back

Clinton calls for 'restraint' in South China Sea

China considers ordaining 7 more bishops amid rift

41 killed in bus fire in central China

Buy AP Photo Reprints
PHOTO GALLERY
AP Photo

China has worst train wreck in a decade
Audio Slideshow
Panorama of Tiananmen Square
Remembering Tiananmen
Interactives/Galleries
Washington Commuter Train Crash

BEIJING (AP) -- At least 11 people were killed and 89 hurt Saturday when a Chinese bullet train lost power after being struck by lightning and was hit from behind by another train, knocking two of its carriages off a bridge, state media reported.

The official Xinhua New Agency said four cars on the second train also derailed, but it did not say how serious that was.

The first train was traveling from the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou when the accident happened in Wenzhou city at about 8:30 p.m. (1230 GMT), Xinhua said.

It said one carriage from the first train fell about 65 to 100 feet (20 to 30 meters). Pictures on the Internet showed the second car was standing on its end and leaning against the bridge.

Xinhua quoted an unidentified witness as saying "rescuers have dragged many passengers out of the coach that fell on the ground."

The trains involved are "D" trains, the first generation bullet train with an average speed of about 95 miles (150 kilometers) per hour and not as fast at the Beijing-Shanghai line that opened June 30.

Xinhua said the train hit by lightning was "D3115." The other train was "D301," which was traveling from Beijing to Shanghai.

China has spent billions and plans more massive spending to link the country with a high-speed rail network. Recently, power outages and other malfunctions have plagued the showcase new high-speed line between Beijing and Shanghai since it opened last month.

Official plans call for China's bullet train network to expand to 8,000 miles (13,000 kilometers) of track this year and 10,000 miles (16,000 kilometers) by 2020.

The huge spending connected with the rail expansion also has been blamed for corruption, and Railways Minister Liu Zhijun was dismissed this spring amid an investigation into unspecified corruption allegations.

No details have been released about the allegations against him, but news reports say they include kickbacks, bribes, illegal contracts and sexual liaisons.

==

Signal system designer apologizes for train crash
Updated: 2011-07-28 15:03
(Xinhua)
Comments(0) Print Mail Large Medium Small
0

BEIJING - A signal system design company apologized on Thursday for a design flaw in one of its products that allegedly caused Saturday's deadly high-speed train collision.

The Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signals and Communication posted an apology letter on its website on Thursday, expressing its condolences and regret to the victims of the accident and their families.

"We feel very sorry" for the deadly train accident that caused so much loss of life, the letter said.

The company promised to cooperate in investigations, take responsibility and shoulder any due punishments that may result from the investigations, the letter said.

Design flaws in railway signal equipment led to Saturday's fatal train collision near the city of Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang province, the Shanghai Railway Bureau said earlier on Thursday.

After being struck by lightning, the signal system at the Wenzhou South Railway Station failed to turn one of its green lights to red, which caused the rear-end collision, said An Lusheng, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, at an investigatory meeting held by the State Council, or China's cabinet, in Wenzhou.

The signal equipment was designed by a Beijing-based research and design institute and was put into use on Sept 28, 2009, An said.

The accident has revealed the railway sector's vulnerabilities in safety infrastructure and management, An said.

The accident has left at least 39 people dead and 192 others injured so far.

The State Council has set up an investigatory panel to work at the site of the crash, the Ministry of Railways (MOR) said in a statement on Tuesday.

==

Wen: Crash probe result to 'stand test of history'
Updated: 2011-07-28 13:37
(Xinhua)
Comments(17) Print Mail Large Medium Small
5

WENZHOU - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised the investigation into the fatal train crash will offer a result that could "stand the test of history".

Wen made the remarks while speaking to press at the site of the deadly train crash near Wenzhou of eastern Zhejiang Province.

The State Council has set up an independent investigation panel, which includes authorities from the security, supervision and judiciary departments, Wen said.

He said the investigation will be "open, transparent" and "under public supervision."

"We shall carefully listen to public opinions and reach a responsible result," Wen said.

China will severely punish those who are responsible for the fatal train collision, Premier Wen said. "We will severely punish those who are responsible for the accident and those who hold responsibilities of leadership in accordance with the country's laws," Wen told the press.

He stressed that the government's top priority is to "protect people's life."

"The country's development is for the people, so the most important thing is people's life."

The premier pledged to offer timely and accurate information on follow-up situations to the public after Saturday's fatal train collision.

Only by disclosing the truth to the public could the accident be handled successfully, he said.

He also urged the Ministry of Railways (MOR) to give an "honest answer" to the people on the way it had handled the aftermath of a fatal train crash.

"I called the minister of railways soon after the crash happened, and what I said to him was just two words -- 'save people'," said Wen after mourning victims and expressing condolences to the relatives of the dead.

"I believe the top principle in handling accidents is to save the victims by all means," said Wen.

"The Ministry of Railways should give an honest answer to the people as to whether it has conformed with this principle in dealing with the collision," said Wen.

Wen said that safety is a top priority in China's high-speed railway technology export.

"The high-speed railway construction of China should integrate speed, quality, efficiency and safety. And safety should be put in the first place," said Wen.

Wen noted that scientific planning, reasonable designing and orderly development are principles for the country's future railway construction.

The construction should not put sole emphasis on the speed, but should integrate it with quality, efficiency and safety, with the safety always the first priority, Wen said.

Wen urged nation to work harder to develop technologies that are "more secure and reliable."

The nation should brace up to develop technological brands with China's own intellectual property rights and products with international competitiveness.

He said that was "a lesson to be learned" from the accident that left 39 people dead and 192 others injured last Saturday.

Wen said he was "confident in the China's future, no matter in its development, construction, technology or education."

===

Probe finds China train crash "avoidable"
Posted: 12 August 2011 1347 hrs
Workers clearing wreckage of mangled carriages after the train accident. (AFP PHOTO)

Photos 1 of 1

Workers clearing wreckage of mangled carriages after the train accident. (AFP PHOTO)


Related News
• Chinese manufacturer pulls bullet trains over "flaws"
Share



BEIJING: Investigators have found that a high-speed rail crash that killed 40 people in China and provoked public outrage was "completely avoidable," the official China Daily newspaper reported on Friday.

The accident "should not have happened," the paper quoted government minister for work safety Luo Lin, who is heading the investigation team, as saying.

The initial conclusions come after investigators into the July 23 collision of two high-speed trains performed a simulation of the events leading up to the disaster, in which 40 people were killed and nearly 200 injured.

Describing the accident as "completely avoidable", Luo told the paper the probe had found design defects that were likely to have caused equipment failures, and that emergency plans were also deficient, but did not elaborate.

The disaster on the outskirts of the eastern city of Wenzhou was a major embarrassment to the Chinese government, which had made the construction of the world's biggest high-speed rail network a key political goal.

Luo's comments came a day after the government said it was suspending approval of new railway construction projects and ordered that the maximum speed of trains on the newly-built lines be lowered by as much as 20 percent.

On Friday, a state-owned manufacturing company said it was recalling 54 bullet trains on the newly opened high-speed link between Beijing and Shanghai for safety checks.

China's government has also said it will reduce its train fares by five percent in a move believed to be aimed at attracting commuters back to the country's beleaguered rail system.