A train with almost 500 people aboard derailed in a tunnel in Taiwan on Friday, killing at least 48 passengers and injuring 66 in the worst rail crash on the island in nearly four decades. The images from the scene show the carriage in the tunnel torn apart with an impact.
“People fell over each other, on top of each other,” a woman who survived the accident said while talking to domestic television. “It was scary. There were all families there.” In the north of the Eastern city of Hualien, the accident killed the train driver who brought many tourists and people home at the beginning of a long weekend to tend to family graves.
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Taiwan Media said many people were standing up as the train was so crowded and thrown away by the accident’s impact. The media showed pictures of victims led out of the tunnel. The train, traveling from Taipei, the capital, to the southeastern city of Taitung, came off the rail after apparently hitting a truck that had slid off the nearest construction site in the area.
On the site, Transport Minister Lin Chia-Lung told reporters that the train had brought around 490 people, higher than the previous 350 figure provided by the fire authorities. The local news agencies said the truck was alleged to have slid from the sloping road to the train road because its hand brake had not been applied and added that the police had taken the driver for interrogation.
The local fire department showed an image of what seemed to be the truck, with an air image from one end of the train still on the track next to the construction site. “Our train crashed into a truck,” said a man in a video aired on a local channel, showing pictures of ruins. “The truck falls.” Passengers in several train cars are still in the tunnel and must be led to a safe place, the train administration said.
The picture shows the injured passengers carried by stretchers, with their heads and necks in a clamp, while others collect suitcases and bags on the tilted train, derailed carriage as some people walk on the roof of the train to leave the tunnel. The accident came at the beginning of a long weekend for a traditional tomb vacation.
East Coast of Taiwan mountains is a tourist destination. The train that snakes down from Taipei hugged the beach and is known for its tunnels, in one of which the accident happened. Taipei link opened in 1979. Taiwanese state-owned trains are generally reliable and efficient but have security records that do not recall for years. In 2018, 18 people died, and 175 were injured when the train slipped northeast of the island. In 1981, 30 was killed in a collision in the northern area, while the train crashed in 1991 and killed 30.
