A train ran into rocks on the tracks after a landslide near Heren (和仁) in Hualien County at about 5pm yesterday afternoon, resulting in nine injuries, internal Taiwan Railway Corp (TRC) reports said.
The driver of train No. 229, an EMU3000 Tze-Chiang Limited Express, had a fractured hand, while eight passengers were also injured, but not seriously, TRC said.
The train was stuck inside the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道), with the door of the first car misaligned and the second car derailed.
Photo courtesy of a reader via CNA
TRC said that at 4:50pm, the train encountered a landslide inside Cingshuei Tunnel, between Chongde (崇德) and Heren on the west main line.
It estimates that about 500 passengers on board were helped off the train and transported to Hualien Station after personnel were dispatched to the site within 20 minutes of the incident.
The collision was very loud, louder than a typical car crash, said a passenger surnamed Chen (陳), who was in the fifth car.
Some passengers were injured, but fortunately a doctor was on board and provided assistance, Chen added.
After the collision, the train made an emergency stop inside the tunnel, a passenger in the third car said.
During the evacuation, the passenger said they saw medical personnel moving toward the first and second cars, as well as debris from the train scattered on the ground.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS