Taipei, Taiwan.
At least 51 persons they died and more than 140 injured people were taken to hospital, the Taiwan National Fire Service said. A maintenance vehicle could have caused the accident by sliding off an embankment and hitting the train just before it entered the tunnel near the coastal city of Hualien, authorities said.
“There was a construction vehicle that was not properly parked and it slid onto the railroad tracks,” Tsai Ding-hsien, Hualien province police chief, told reporters.
“It is suspected that the driver did not pull the handbrake enough, causing the vehicle to slide 20 meters to the track,” Deputy Director of the Taiwan Railway Authority, Feng Hui-sheng, told reporters.
Local media photos taken on the spot showed the rear of an overturned yellow low-loader by the train. According to her agency, President Tsai Ing-wen ordered hospitals to prepare to receive many victims.
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“The top priority now is to help the trapped people,” his office said in a statement. The accident occurred at around 9:30 am (1:30 am GMT) on Taiwan’s Eastern Line.
The images published by the local media UDN showed that the front of the train is inside the tunnel I was devastatedThe Taiwanese Red Cross has also released footage of lifeguards wearing helmets and flashlights walking into the tunnel on the roof of the wrecked train to reach the survivors.
“Sudden violent shaking”
The passengers in the back of the convoy could come out relatively unscathed of the accident. “I felt like there had been a sudden violent shock and fell to the floor,” a woman told the television network. “We broke the window to get on the roof of the train and get out.”
The accident coincides with the start of the annual grave cleaning holiday, a long holiday weekend that fills the country’s roads and railways.
During this period, the inhabitants generally return to their hometown to clean the graves of their relatives and to make offerings. Taiwan’s Eastern Railway is often a tourist draw as it runs along the beautiful and less populated east coast.
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It winds through multiple tunnels and bridges through mountains and spectacular gorges before descending through the Huadong Valley. Friday’s accident is one of Taiwan’s worst railway disasters on record.
The last big derailment goes back to 2018, when 18 people died on the south side of the same line. The driver of that eight-car train was subsequently charged with negligent murder. More than 200 of the 366 passengers were injured.
This accident was the worst since 1991 when 30 passengers were killed and 112 injured in the collision of two trains at Miaoli. According to the Apple Daily newspaper, the worst accident on the island was in 1948, killing 64 people.