Rescuers untangling Japan's worst train crash in decades uncovered body after body in the wreckage yesterday to put the death toll at 95, but grim work remained in accounting for the dozens still missing, including the driver at the center of the investigation into the wreck.
A probe into possible negligence by operator West Japan Railway Co (JR West) has focused on the 23-year-old driver, his lack of experience and suspicions that the train was speeding before it derailed and slammed into an apartment building on Monday. At least 456 people were injured.
Rescuers at the crash site in Amagasaki, about 410km west of Tokyo, found at least 13 bodies in the early hours yesterday, police said. They also found a body seated at the front of the train and believed to be that of the 23-year-old driver Ryujiro Takami, but that hadn't been confirmed.
The death toll was expected to rise further, with an unknown number of victims still in the wreckage. JR West said 47 people are unaccounted for. Rescue workers used power shovels to peel away the twisted metal of the two worst-damaged train cars, flattened against the apartment building.
Transportation Minister Kazuo Kitagawa indicated the government would order JR West to review the way it operates after it completes its investigation into the accident.
"The driver had only 11 months of experience and we can only say that JR West's employee training and its tests to evaluate the suitability of drivers had problems," Kitagawa said. "I would like to issue instructions to them based on the results of our investigation."
Amid rising concerns about train safety, a car in central Japan crashed into a train as it was passing through a rail crossing yesterday morning. The car's driver was seriously injured and was taken to a nearby hospital, but none of the 130 passengers on the train were hurt.
Investigators found the train's "black box," a computer chip that stores information about the time and train's speed in the final seconds before an accident. They cautioned that the contents would take some time to analyze.
Police suspected the train was going 100km when it hit the curve where it derailed -- well above the 70km speed limit.
Investigators said the driver may have been shaken after over-running the last station by 40m and falling 90 seconds behind schedule.
The driver got his train operator's license last May. One month later, he overran a station and was issued a warning for his mistake, railway officials and police said.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS