Taiwan train crash horror leaves 50 dead and dozens trapped as service smashes into truck which fell on railway line
AT LEAST 50 people have been killed and more than 100 injured after a train smashed into a truck which fell onto the line in Taiwan.
The busy service carrying almost 500 passengers derailed in the horror smash which is the island's most devastating rail disaster in four decades.
The 408 Taroko Express - travelling from Taipei to Taitung and carrying many tourists and people heading home at the start of the long weekend - came off the rails north of Hualien in eastern Taiwan.
Shocking pictures of the crash scene show carriages inside the tunnel ripped apart from the impact at around 9am local time.
Others crumpled, hindering rescuers reaching passengers who remained trapped inside the wreckage.
The train was reportedly entering the tunnel, and pictures show the front carriage completely shredded, with other cars derailing and smashing into the concrete walls.
It is understood to be one of the fastest stretches on the rail network, with trains hitting speeds of up 80mph.
Taiwanese media said many people were standing as the train was so full, and were thrown from their feet when it crashed.
“Our train crashed into a truck. The truck came falling down,” one man said in a video aired on local TV.
Dozens of injured people were rushed to hospital, with around 70 reported trapped in the carriages rescued.
With much of the train still inside the tunnel, many escaping passengers had to scramble out of doors and windows and scale the sides of the train to walk along the roof in darkness to safety.
One young man interviewed by Taiwanese media at a hospital said he had traveled with friends for the holiday but now had no idea where they were.
The man, who only gave his surname as Chen and who was in a wheelchair, his arm in a cast, said: "Everyone just went flying all over the place."
Obviously distraught and in pain, he said the cars and seats had been twisted out of shape.
Some 100 people were evacuated from the first four carriages of the train, while carriages five to eight had “deformed” and hampered rescue efforts.
“Is everyone out in carriage four?” a lady is heard shouting from inside the tunnel, in images provided by the fire department.
About 50 volunteers from the Tzu Chi Buddhist Foundation stationed at an aid tent near the crash site said children were among the dozens who escaped the train cars.
They were treating minor wounds and offering lunches.
Chen Tzu-chong, a Tzu Chi team leader on site, said: "We see people coming off the train and they look shaken and nervous."
The official Central News Agency said an engineering truck that was “not parked properly” is suspected of sliding into the path of the train.
The fire department showed a picture of what appeared to be the truck’s wreckage lying next to the derailed train.
Images from the scene showed derailed train cars wedged against the walls of the tunnel, with part of the wall of one car smashed into a seat.
"Many people were crushed under train seats in the collision. And there were other people on top of the seats," a passenger with gauze taped to her elbow told Taiwanese broadcaster EBC.
"So those at the bottom were pressed and crushed and lost consciousness.
"At the beginning, they still responded when we called them. But I guess they lost consciousness afterward."
Taiwan's president Tsai Ing-wen said emergency services had been “fully mobilised” for the rescue mission.
She said: “We will continue to do everything we can to ensure their safety in the wake of this heartbreaking incident."
The National Fire Service confirmed the death toll included the train's young, newly married driver, and said all aboard had now been accounted for.
More than 100 people were injured, according to officials.
Taiwan's government said there were 496 people on the train, including 120 without seats.
Many were tourists and people heading home at the start of a traditional long weekend holiday to tend to family graves. One French citizen was amongst the dead, officials said.
The train was travelling from Taipei, the capital, to the southeastern city of Taitung.
It came off the rails north of the eastern city of Hualien after hitting a truck that had slid off a road from a nearby construction site, Feng Hui-sheng, the Taiwan Railways Administration's deputy director, told reporters.
Feng said the manager of the site, which was stabilising the mountainside to prevent landslides, visited around 9am and stopped his truck in front of the site office.
"At present it is suspected because the vehicle wasn't braked properly, it slid for around 20 metres along the site access road and entered the eastern trunk line," he added.
The official Central News Agency said police had taken in the manager for questioning.
Railways news officer Weng Hui-ping called the crash Taiwan's deadliest rail disaster.
Weng said a construction truck operated by the railway administration slid onto the track from a work site on the hillside above.
No one was in the truck at the time and an investigation has been launched into the crash.
TAIWAN'S DEADLIEST TRAIN CRASHES
Taiwan has suffered a series of deadly train crashes over the decades.
These include:
- On May 30, 1976 a head-on collision near Tanwen resulted in 29 deaths and 141 injuries.
- Then, on March 8, 1981, train hit a truck near Hsinchu on a level crossing, killing the truck driver and 30 passengers on the train.
- Back on December 20, 1990 train struck a tour bus, killing 25 passengers on the bus.
- The following year, on November 15, 1991, a collision between two trains resulted in 30 deaths and 112 injuries.
- More recently, on October 21, 2018, a train speeding through a curve derailed, killing 18 passengers and leaving a further 215 injured.
The train involved the derailment, the Taroko No. 408, is one of Taiwan's newer models.
Taiwanese Premier Su Tseng-chang, who visited the site this afternoon, said the Railways Administration would be required to immediately conduct checks along other track lines to prevent this from happening again.
The accident came on the first day of the four-day Tomb Sweeping Festival.
It is an annual religious festival when people travel to their hometowns for family gatherings and to worship at the graves of their ancestors.
Taiwan’s last major rail crash was in October 2018 when an express train derailed while rounding a tight corner on the northeast coast, killing at least 18 people and injuring nearly 200.
In 1981, a collision in western Taiwan killed 30 people and injured 112 in what was previously its deadliest train accident.
Taiwan is a mountainous island where most of its 24 million people are squeezed onto flatlands along the northern and western coasts.
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The lightly populated east is popular with tourists, many of whom arrive along the coastal railway lines to avoid treacherous mountain roads.
Taiwan’s extensive rail system has undergone substantial upgrades in recent years, particularly with the addition of a high-speed line connecting the capital Taipei with west coast cities to the south.