No one to blame for KCRC train cracks: report

No one should be held accountable for fractures found on East Rail trains despite four KCRC executives being advised to 'learn a lesson' from the incident, said a report released yesterday by an independent review panel.

The report, compiled by a four-man team appointed by government in May, said it would be unfair to blame anyone in particular.

But it said then-acting chief executive Samuel Lai Man-hay, senior transport director Li Yun-tai, safety and quality manager Alex Lau Hing-hon and Chow Chi-fun, an acting manager, should learn a lesson and adopt changes to improve communication with the government and the public.

Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung stopped short of saying whether the four, or any other staff members, should be punished. 'Because this is a company, the government will not directly be involved in punishing or rewarding staff, so we will refer this to the [KCRC's] chief executive.'

A KCRC spokesman declined to say whether anyone should be punished. He repeated the report's finding that it would be unfair to hold any one staff member responsible.

The fractures first came to the KCRC's attention when a compressor was found partially detached from a train on December 21. The incident was reported to the government but the problem was found to be much worse in the next four days, when nine more welding joints on other trains were found to contain cracks. The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation did not notify the government of these cracks until two weeks later. Welding on more than 600 train components was found to be faulty.