Transport emergency specialists said yesterday rail authorities ignored their warnings on the risks of lightning and pointed out the country's railway system still had insufficient protection against such strikes.
The railway ministry blamed Saturday night's fatal high-speed train collision on 'equipment failure caused by lightning', said ministry spokesman Wang Yongping , citing an initial investigation.
Tsinghua University professor and National Lightning Protection Technology Standard Committee director He Jinliang said his committee offered to provide suggestions on lightning protection measures to the rail ministry, but was turned down.
Lightning rods on power transmission pylons could significantly reduce the risk of lightning strikes damaging high-speed rail lines by channelling extremely high voltage currents into the ground, He said. The devices were cheap and simple, but to install them on every pylon in China's high-speed rail network required a considerable investment and the rail ministry regarded it as too expensive.
The lack of lightning protection hardware on the mainland's high-speed network led to a high frequency of lightning strike incidents.
There had been at least eight major incidents since 2007, causing massive delays in provinces such as Hebei, Shandong, Fujian and Jiangsu, according to China News Services. The latest accident crippled the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail service three days after it began operation this month.
The railway ministry also rejected a request from the country's best lightning experts to fund research on the safety impacts of lightning on the high-speed rail links, He said.