TAIPEI – The derailment of a passenger train in Taiwan on Friday killed at least 50 people and injured more than 180 others in the island’s deadliest railway incident in at least four decades.
The express train, which traveled from the Taipei area and headed south through Eastern Taiwan to Taitung, was carrying nearly 500 people, including railway personnel, when it left the track at around 9:30 am in a tunnel near the scenic area of Hualien. causing some of the carriages to hit the tunnel walls, local authorities said. The train, the Taroko Express, can reach speeds of about 130 kilometers per hour.
At 6 p.m. on Saturday, 51 people, including two train attendants, two Americans and a French passenger, had been pronounced dead in the incident, while authorities said 188 injured people had been taken to hospitals. Friday night, firefighters had rescued all remaining passengers.
“I share the grief with my fellow countrymen,” said Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen Friday afternoon. She said the Taiwan Transport Security Council is investigating the cause of the incident, urging the public to refrain from excessive speculation and await the final investigation results.
A preliminary investigation published Friday by Taiwan’s Central Emergency Operation Center indicated that the eight-car train hit a construction vehicle that had stopped on the track.