Taiwan train crash: 50 killed, 146 hurt in collision with runaway truck
- Taroko Express, en route to Taitung with 488 passengers aboard, was about to enter a tunnel when it was hit by a driverless truck
- The dead include one French national, while those injured include people from Japan and Macau
Taiwan’s worst train accident in decades, which killed at least 50 people and injured 146 others, was caused by a runaway truck that rolled down a hillside from a construction site above the track, officials said on Friday.
The eight-car Taroko Express carrying 496 passengers was en route to the southeastern coastal city of Taitung from New Taipei City when the accident happened near Chongde, Hualien, at about 9.30am, the Taiwan Railway Administration said.
“The train was about to enter Chingshui Tunnel when it collided with a truck that had rolled down an embankment from a construction site,” Feng Hui-sheng, deputy director general of the administration, said at a news conference in Taipei.
The first two carriages of the train derailed after striking the truck and forcing parts of it into the tunnel. The train’s engineer, Yuan Chun-hsiu, 33, and mechanic, Chiang Pei-feng, 32, who were travelling in the first carriage, were killed on impact, Feng said.
Several of the following carriages were crushed as they slammed into the walls of the tunnel. The carriages at the end of the train that did not reach the tunnel were less badly damaged, he said.
Among the passengers killed was a French citizen, Feng said, adding that two Japanese and a Macau citizen were among the 146 being treated in hospital for their injuries.
