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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS