Rescuers pulled the final survivors from the gnarled wreckage of Japan's worst train crash in decades yesterday as investigators raided rail operator offices for clues about why the train skidded from the tracks, killing 73 people.
Power shovels picked at the piles of twisted railway cars and debris, peeling away layers of crushed metal to allow better access to the two train cars flattened against an apartment building that the train slammed into during Monday's deadly accident in Amagasaki.
Agents swarmed eight offices of West Japan Railway Co, carting away cardboard boxes of documents, as media reports said the company's top executives were expected to resign. The probe into possible professional negligence has focused on the actions of the 23-year-old driver -- who has not yet been accounted for -- and the speed of the train.
PHOTO: AFP
Workers freed two survivors from the wreckage early yesterday, and police said they did not expect to find anyone else alive. Police wouldn't comment on media reports that workers had found at least 10 more people, all feared dead.
Hiroki Hayashi, 19, was sprung from a damaged car after surviving the night with the help of an intravenous drip and drinking water.
"I'm in pain, I can't take it anymore," he told his mother in a cell phone call after the crash, according to his 18-year-old brother Takamichi Hayashi.
Hiroki Hayashi was injured in the leg and was conscious and in stable condition at a hospital as of yesterday afternoon.
Victims' relatives struggled to comprehend their loss.
"I wish it were only a nightmare," Hiroko Kuki, whose son Tetsuji was killed in the crash, told public broadcaster NHK. "I only saw him the night before ... I wish he were alive somewhere."
In northern Japan, the lead car of a passenger train jumped the tracks when it crashed into a trailer at a crossing at Nimori yesterday in the second derailment in two days. The trailer's driver was slightly hurt.
The seven-car train that crashed Monday in Amagasaki was packed with 580 passengers when it jumped the tracks near this Osaka suburb and plunged into the first floor of an apartment complex. At least 456 people were injured.
About 10 government inspectors launched their accident investigation yesterday by examining tracks. They also planned to recover a recorder with data on the train's speed and other details at the time of the accident, said Mr. Shimoda, a Transportation Ministry inspector who gave only his family name.
Monday's accident occurred at a curve after a straightaway. Passengers speculated that the driver may have been speeding to make up for lost time after overshooting the previous station.
The train was nearly two minutes behind schedule, company officials said.
The driver -- identified as Ryujiro Takami -- had obtained his train operator's license in May last year. One month later, he overran a station and was issued a warning for his mistake, railway officials and police said.
They were investigating the case as possible professional negligence by the train operator, West Japan Railway Co, a prefectural police spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
JR West president, Takeshi Kakiuchi, and other top executives were likely to announce their resignation today at a board of directors' meeting originally scheduled to discuss earnings, the Nihon Keizai reported.
Tsunemi Murakami, the JR West safety director, said he instructed company employees to "fully cooperate" with police investigation to look into the cause of the accident.
"We take it seriously because of a large accident like this," he said.
Deadly train accidents are rare in Japan. Monday's accident was the worst rail disaster in nearly 42 years in safety-conscious Japan, which is home to one of the world's most complex, efficient and heavily traveled rail networks. A three-train crash in November 1963 killed 161 people in Tsurumi, outside Tokyo.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS