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HUALIEN: Taiwanese prosecutors have requested an arrest warrant for a construction site manager whose truck is believed to have caused a train accident in which at least 50 people died.
The accident, Taiwan’s worst rail accident in seven decades, occurred after an express train collided with a truck that had slid down a bank alongside the track from a construction site. It is suspected that the construction site manager did not apply the brake correctly.
The train was carrying nearly 500 people on its way from Taiwan’s capital Taipei to Taitung on the east coast when it derailed in a tunnel north of Hualien.
Yu Hsiu-duan, head of the Hualien prosecutor’s office, told reporters late Friday that an arrest warrant had been requested and is now being handled by the judicial system.
“To preserve the relevant evidence, we have several groups of prosecutors in place and we are searching the necessary places,” he said.
On Saturday, workers began moving the rear of the train, which was in relatively good condition after having stopped outside the tunnel, on the track and away from the crash site.
The most damaged sections of the train are still destroyed inside the tunnel.
President Tsai Ing-wen is due to be in Hualien on Saturday to visit survivors, her office said. The government has also declared that the flags should be hoisted at half mast for three days in a show of mourning.
The accident happened at the beginning of a long vacation weekend and the train was packed with tourists and people returning home.
