A Taichung MRT train on Wednesday crashed into a crane boom that fell onto the tracks, leaving one person dead and 10 injured. The incident has sparked discussion about whether it could have been prevented, and how to avoid such accidents.
The crane boom fell from the top of a 31-floor building and crashed through the noise barrier covering the tracks about 150m from the Feng-le Park Station, and a Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp (TMRT) train departing from the station collided with the crane boom.
Station surveillance footage showed that the boom fell onto the tracks at 12:27:04pm. The MRT train stopped at the station at 12:27:05pm, and the platform security guard, who saw the fallen crane boom, shouted to the attendant in the train’s first cabin to halt the train, but she did not notice. The train doors closed at 12:27:22pm and it left the station at 12:27:30pm, hitting the crane boom at 12:27:45pm.
From surveillance footage inside the train and TMRT’s explanation, the MRT attendant, after seeing the obstacle, called the operation control center on a wireless radio and tried to retrieve a key from her bag to open a cover to access the manual control panel, but she fell over as the train crashed.
Many people asked whether in the 41 seconds from when the boom hit the tracks to when the train crashed into it, TMRT could have stopped the train from leaving the station.
City councilors said that the operation control center received 16 automatic warning signals about power system abnormalities in the six seconds after the boom fell onto the tracks, but it did not identify the problem in time.
As the Taichung MRT’s Green Line is operated by a driverless automatic system, TMRT said its trains each have a 2m obstacle-detection pole in front, but an emergency brake can only be triggered when the pole touches an obstacle on the tracks. Although the train attendant and station manager reported to the operation control center, it takes 20 seconds for the center to halt a train. There are emergency stop buttons, an emergency intercom and an emergency door handle in the train cabins, but the train only stops at the next station if the stop button is pressed while it is running, TMRT said.
The company that dispatched the crew operating the crane, Highwealth Construction — which, together with its subsidiaries, had 10 major construction accidents in the past five years, resulting in 10 deaths — is being blamed for the accident. The company’s other construction sites have been ordered to shut down for safety inspections, while the people involved are facing charges of endangering public safety and negligence resulting in death and injury.
However, the accident also highlights flaws in the Taichung MRT system’s design and emergency response mechanism, including the lack of a vision-based obstacle detection system that can extend the detection parameters, the lack of a manual emergency stop button on the platform accessible to station personnel, and flawed standard operating procedures.
TMRT said in a preliminary report on Friday that it would introduce a pointing and calling method — commonly used in Japanese railways and industry to reduce mistakes — and set up a standardized danger gesture for station platform personnel. They would have to stop carriage doors from closing to stall the train leaving the station, to buy time for it to be halted. Train attendants would also be given a designated place to store the key to access the manual control panel.
Local governments have started safety checks on urban rail systems, as well as safety inspections on Highwealth Construction’s construction sites. However, officials must ensure that design flaws are improved, standard operating procedures are revised and practiced, and inspections on construction sites are conducted frequently.
A chip made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) was found on a Huawei Technologies Co artificial intelligence (AI) processor, indicating a possible breach of US export restrictions that have been in place since 2019 on sensitive tech to the Chinese firm and others. The incident has triggered significant concern in the IT industry, as it appears that proxy buyers are acting on behalf of restricted Chinese companies to bypass the US rules, which are intended to protect its national security. Canada-based research firm TechInsights conducted a die analysis of the Huawei Ascend 910B AI Trainer, releasing its findings on Oct.
Pat Gelsinger took the reins as Intel CEO three years ago with hopes of reviving the US industrial icon. He soon made a big mistake. Intel had a sweet deal going with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the giant manufacturer of semiconductors for other companies. TSMC would make chips that Intel designed, but could not produce and was offering deep discounts to Intel, four people with knowledge of the agreement said. Instead of nurturing the relationship, Gelsinger — who hoped to restore Intel’s own manufacturing prowess — offended TSMC by calling out Taiwan’s precarious relations with China. “You don’t want all of
In honor of President Jimmy Carter’s 100th birthday, my longtime friend and colleague John Tkacik wrote an excellent op-ed reassessing Carter’s derecognition of Taipei. But I would like to add my own thoughts on this often-misunderstood president. During Carter’s single term as president of the United States from 1977 to 1981, despite numerous foreign policy and domestic challenges, he is widely recognized for brokering the historic 1978 Camp David Accords that ended the state of war between Egypt and Israel after more than three decades of hostilities. It is considered one of the most significant diplomatic achievements of the 20th century.
In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, titled “The Upside on Uncertainty in Taiwan,” Johns Hopkins University professor James B. Steinberg makes the argument that the concept of strategic ambiguity has kept a tenuous peace across the Taiwan Strait. In his piece, Steinberg is primarily countering the arguments of Tufts University professor Sulmaan Wasif Khan, who in his thought-provoking new book The Struggle for Taiwan does some excellent out-of-the-box thinking looking at US policy toward Taiwan from 1943 on, and doing some fascinating “what if?” exercises. Reading through Steinberg’s comments, and just starting to read Khan’s book, we could already sense that
RSS