Train derailment leaves dozens dead in Japan
TOKYO – A crowded commuter train derailed and plowed into an apartment building in western Japan today, turning passenger cars into twisted metal.
At least 49 people were killed and more than 230 injured, officials said.
The seven-car commuter train was carrying 580 passengers when it jumped the tracks, wrecking an automobile in its path before slamming into a nine-story apartment complex just yards away. Two of the rail cars were flattened against the wall of the building, and hundreds of rescue workers and police swarmed the wreckage and tended to the injured.
The cause of the crash in an urban area near Amagasaki, about 250 miles west of Tokyo, was not immediately known. Survivors said high speed may have been a factor. Attention focused on the inexperienced 23-year-old driver.
“There was a violent shaking, and the next moment I was thrown to the floor … and I landed on top of a pile of other people,” passenger Tatsuya Akashi said. “I didn’t know what happened, and there were many people bleeding.”
An official with the Hyogo state police said at least 37 people were killed and some 200 were injured. It was not clear how many of the dead were passengers of if bystanders and apartment residents were among the victims.
The accident was one of the worst rail disasters in recent memory in Japan, home to one of the world’s most complex and heavily traveled rail networks. Four people were killed and 33 were injured in March 2000 when a Tokyo subway hit a derailed train.
“There are many theories, but we don’t know for sure what caused the accident,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said. “The prime minister instructed us to respond with urgency.”
The train operator, Japan Railway Co., apologized over the accident.
Survivors said the force of the derailment sent passengers tumbling through the inside of the cars. Photos taken by a reporter on the train showed passengers piled on the floor and clawing to escape.
Media reported that the train collided with a car in between train stations while it was running at a speed of 43 mph, though a railway official said that figure wasn’t certain.
Investigators tried to come up with reasons for the crash. The railway’s safety director estimated the train would have had to be at 82 mph to jump the track purely because of excessive speed. He said it wasn’t certain how fast it was going at the time of the accident.
The driver’s inexperience also may have been a factor. He only had 11 months’ experience and had committed a previous overrun at a station in June 2004, officials said.