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Hualien: Rescue crews began removing wrecked train cars after Taiwan’s worst rail disaster in decades killed at least 50 people, while flags flew at half mast on a mourning island.
Authorities said Friday’s devastating collision was caused when a parked rail maintenance vehicle slid down an embankment and fell onto the tracks.
A train packed with up to 500 people at the start of a long holiday weekend collided with the truck just as it entered a narrow tunnel near the eastern coastal city of Hualien.
The truck driver, who according to rail authorities may not have properly secured the parking brake, has been released on bail after being questioned by prosecutors and cannot leave Taiwan pending further investigation.
Rescuers described a gruesome scene when they rushed into the tunnel and found the front of the train pulverized on twisted metal mesh.
“Car number eight had the most serious injuries and the number of most serious deaths,” rescuer Chang Zi-chen told reporters yesterday, referring to the most advanced passenger car.
“Basically more than half the car broke apart and the bodies piled up.”
Teams of specialists spent hours extracting victims and survivors on Friday.
Yesterday, the focus was on removing the wagons that now block half of the only train line that runs down the remote and mountainous eastern coast of Taiwan.
A reporter at the scene of the tragedy said the most damaged wagons had not yet been removed from within the tunnel.
Rescuers said there may be more bodies still inside the wreckage.
The Interior Ministry ordered all flags to be lowered to half-staff for three days while President Tsai Ing-wen visited the wounded in Hualien hospitals.
The accident on Friday morning took place at the start of the Grave Sweeping Festival, a four-day holiday in which many Taiwanese return to villages to clean the graves of their ancestors.
More than 175 people were rushed to the hospital. A French citizen was among the dead.
Survivors gave terrifying testimony of their ordeal inside the train after the accident.
Many of those on board were standing in the corridors because the route was heavily traveled by those leaving the capital, Taipei, and heading to their hometowns.
“I saw bodies and body parts everywhere, it’s really devastating,” a man surnamed Lo told the Apple Daily newspaper.
“Human beings are fragile and their lives suddenly disappear.”
Morgues in Hualien operated all night preparing bodies for devastated family members.
Authorities warned that the death toll could rise because parts of the body have not yet been properly identified.
Investigators are focusing on how the maintenance truck could have slid onto the tracks.
Prosecutors had asked a court to detain the manager on charges of causing the wrongful death, a Justice Ministry official said.
The court said that while the truck fell into the path of the train possibly due to negligence, there was “no possibility of conspiracy.” – Agencies
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