bullet train accident
 

I'm only seeing a preliminary report, but it doesn't sound good.

Wasn't there some scandal about the way these projects were being financed and constructed?


http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/07...train-derails/

Yes, this news is just popping up all over the international online media, but very little in the Chinese official media so far. Interesting it is a D train not one of the faster G's. I'm not in China now so for those of you who are, let us know what you are hearing (if anything) as to causes. The MoR is not having a good summer so far.

I said before, this CRH project has many flaws. Sooner or later some major disaster will happen.

http://news.qq.com/zt2011/dongchetg/

See this update.

This happened about 2km away from where we are right now.

Saw a huge rush of emergency personnel rushing past our street, we thought it was a fire or something due to the big thunderstorm.

Man, I take that train at least twice a week. It will be shut down for a while for sure.

crazy week so far....

i'm in tianjin....just took the #50 bus the other day....the next day, one of the drivers is stabbed to death

people are killed in a swimming pool nearby after electrical wires fall into the pool

and now this train accident...after i'm made plans to go to wenzhou early next week

First casualty figures are in. There are deaths and injuries with the latter numbering around 90 so far. Well possible that also non-Chinesea are affected in those parts of the country.

As tragic as the accident is, it can hopefully serve as a wake up call for the government to pedantically check the damage left by previous incompetence and corruption in the CRH network.

According to HK meida, at least two cars off the bridge. At least 11 killed. The final number will be a lot higher.

Report I read is that southbound D3115 from Hangzhou to Wenzhou stopped after being a lightning strike. The Beijing-Fuzhou D301 following plowed into the stopped train.

I'll look up the schedule in a few minutes to see how far the trains are supposed to be apart.

Running highspeed or semi-highspeed trains the Japanese and Chinese do - with just a few minutes apart on some routes - require redundant safety systems when it comes to signaling issues. Took the Japanese years to get to run the few-minutes-apart schedule on their Shinkansen in an earthquake-prone area. What kind of experience and backup systems do the Chinese put on their track?

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Edit: Looking at the schedule, D3115 is Hangzhou to Fuzhou South, D301 is Beijing to Fuzhou South. But D301 is supposed to be about 15 minutes ahead of D3115, arriving at Wenzhou South 19:42 vs 19:57. Perhaps D301 was late, or the media has one or both of the train numbers wrong.

Man, that was close! 2km?

16 pax dead. More to come. Final casualty should be a lot higher.

Wenzhou City is running out of blood.

Looks like several cars fell off the tracks and crashed 50 ft to the ground.

First train lost power and was stalled on track and second train plowed
into it.



http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...h_1953881c.jpg

This is one of things I was afraid of with the recent spate of power failures. A properly functioning system should have had functional signals for slowdowns and stops for all the trains along the track regardless of high or low speed type. Getting to the root of why that second train was continuing to barrel along is as important as finding why the first one lost power.

Why the second train didn't stop seems more important.

Human Error? i.e. Chatsworth 2008:Metrolink Train Engineer sending text messages while on duty.

To me, it's a more a systematic problem than a human error. I surely hope China's high speed and semi-highspeed trains don't rely on the conductor to look at a red light (trackside or onboard) at 250km/h or 300km/h and have to manually slow the train down when there's a stopped train in front.

up to 22 dead
 

Chinese news report:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english201..._131004925.htm

Very sad. If it's determined the engineer of the train that slammed into the stopped one was at fault through negligence, what will happen to him? Is there any compensation to the victims, at least to pay their medical bills for the injured? How does it work in China when things like this happen?

What will happen to him?

Check out the photo of where the conductor is located.

http://im.rediff.com/money/2011/jun/30train1.jpg

The government will pay compensation to victims and their families.
Unlike the US, PI attorneys won't be taking out full page ads in the
Wenzhou papers.

Just bear in mind that even at half the speeds these trains can go at, it takes a fair distance to stop the train. It is entirely possible that even if the train driver saw a red light, it may not have been far ahead of the stalled train for him/her to stop the train in time. If the driver had seen the stalled train in front of him/her (even in most ideal conditions), he/she'll only have been able to reduce collision speed slightly.