An external oversight committee, comprising railway experts and families of victims killed in the Taroko Express derailment in 2021, has been established to facilitate safety reforms at the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
The creation of such a committee was inspired by Japan’s “4.25 Network,” which was formed by families of victims of a derailment of West Japan Railway’s (JR West) Fukuchiyama Line in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, on April 25, 2005, killing 107 passengers and injuring 562.
The network’s persistent efforts in the past 18 years have helped enhance the safety of JR West.
Photo: CNA
Three key people involved in the railway company’s reform — Yasanichi Asano, who lost his wife and his younger sister in the accident, Japanese journalist Hajimou Matsumoto and Kansai University social safety science professor Seiji Abe — arrived in Taipei on Tuesday night at the invitation of the ministry to share their experiences with ministry officials and families of victims killed in the Taroko Express derailment.
The three attended a news conference organized by the ministry in Taipei yesterday morning.
The committee has 13 members and three conveners — former minister of transportation and communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦), Chen Peng-nien (陳鵬年) and Chin Ying-hua (秦櫻華) — Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said on the sidelines of the news conference.
Chen survived the derailment of Taroko Express, but lost his four-year-older daughter and younger sister in the accident, while Chin lost her daughter, a music senior at Fu Jen Catholic University.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Allen Hu (胡湘麟), as well as Railway Bureau and TRA officials are obligated to attend the oversight committee’s meetings, Wang said.
Ministry officials must regularly present a progress report on railway safety reform to the oversight committee, and the committee’s suggestions must be incorporated as part of reform, he added.
“Although we have adopted the civil aviation industry’s safety management system, and introduced an independent validation and verification system to enhance the safety of TRA services, it has a long way to go before a safety culture can be rooted and grounded in the agency,” Wang said. “The journey to safety reform is filled with challenges and difficulties, and experts and victims’ families can be a power to support our reform efforts. It took 4.25 Network 18 years to reform JR West, and hopefully we would not need that long.”
The ministry has yet to decide who is to lead Taiwan Railway Corp when it is officially established on Jan.1 next year, Wang said, adding that the person must be an expert in railway systems and familiar with TRA’s operations to quickly “get the hang of it.”
Asano said that he only became conscious that he was the family member of two victims two years after the derailment.
“I realized then that I am still alive and began to wonder: Why did the accident happen and who should be responsible?” he said. “It occurred to me that the party that was responsible should be no other than the JR West itself... I realized I needed to consolidate the efforts of other victims’ families to communicate with JR West’s management to identify the reasons that led to the accident.”
Asked why he has not ceased his efforts to oversee JR West, Asano said that the company does not yet use scientific methods to define “human errors,” nor has it identified reasons that caused its employees to lie about their work and shun their responsibilities.
Abe said that change can only happen when people become conscious of the importance of safety.
“People tend to let their guard down because accidents might not happen immediately even if they fail to follow standard procedures and keep ignoring important details,” Abe said.
“We can stipulate safety management systems and conduct risk assessments, but the key is our attitude in enforcing these safety regulations,” Abe said.
During the 1960s, an average of 100 people died in railway accidents per year, Abe said, adding that such massive casualties have not happened since the Amagasaki derailment in 2005, he said.
Matsumoto, whose book The Fukuchiyama Line Derailment Accident: the Fight to Change JR West records Asano’s struggle in the past 18 years, said that Asano has dedicated himself to making the accident one that concerns general society.
“This means that Asano is trying to find reasons leading to the accident, describe them in detail and share them with the public,” he said. “Sometimes, only victims’ families can see things from a different perspective, say things people do not dare say and identify the real problems.”
Privatizing a railway agency might be the first step to get rid of the bureaucratic attitude, but it might not solve all the problems, he said.
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