At least 33 dead, 190 injured in east China train crash
English.news.cn 2011-07-24 07:15:15
Rescue personnel work on the scene of the accident in Shuangyu Town in Wenzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province, on July 24, 2011. Up to now 32 people were dead and 171 injured. D301 train from Beijing to Fuzhou rear-ended the D3115 train at 8:50 p.m. The first four coaches of D301 and the 15th and 16th coaches of D3115 went off the line. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
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by Xinhua writers Ji Shaoting, Lu Qiuping and Zhang Yi
WENZHOU, July 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 33 people were killed and 190 others injured in a train crash and derailing accident late Saturday in east China's Zhejiang Province, according to the provincial emergency office.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for all-out efforts to rescue passengers and ordered to make rescue work a priority, according to a statement posted on the website of the Ministry of Railways.
The latest result of investigation released early Sunday morning by the Zhejiang provincial government showed that the accident occurred at 8:27 p.m. Saturday at the at the section of Shuangyu Town in Wenzhou City, when high-speed train D301 crashed into another bullet train D3115. Four coaches of D301 fell off the viaduct.
LIGHTNING-TRIGGERED CRASH
The accident occurred after high-speed train D3115 was allegedly hit by lightning and lost drive, and then rear-ended by another bullet train D301.
The former train was running from the provincial capital Hangzhou to the southeastern city of Fuzhou, and the latter one traveled from Beijing to Fuzhou.
The trains were administrated by two different regional railway bureaus -- train D3115 by the Shanghai Railway Bureau while train D301 by the Nanchang Railway Bureau.
In the opposite direction, high-speed train D3212 from southeastern city of Xiamen to Hangzhou was also stopped by lightning at about 8 p.m. Saturday. No passenger was injured, said Liu Jiwei who was on board.
Pan Yiheng, the driver of train D301, was stabbed to death by a brake handle in his chest. He triggered the emergency brake at the last moment of his life, according to the FM93.0 radio of Zhejiang.
At the No.1 Hospital attached to the Wenzhou Medical College, a man about 40 years old told Xinhua he was a passenger from the 16th coach of D3115. There were more than 60 passengers aboard the coach.
"We were trapped in the coach for more than one hour before five of us broke the window and crawled out," said the man, who did not reveal his name.
The five passengers also dragged an old man and a woman out of the coach, but the old man died half an hour later.
A woman surnamed Zhou in Lucheng District People's Hospital in Wenzhou said she was in the 11th coach on train D3115. She and her whole family, four adults and two children, got on the train from Hangzhou.
"At around 8 p.m. at the Yongjia station, the train was supposed to stop for one minute, but actually stayed for 25 minutes," Zhou told Xinhua.
"After it moved, we heard a 'bang' and it felt like an earthquake. I immediately held my five-year-old kid to my arms," she said.
Zhou got a bruise in her arms and her kid was injured on the head. Luckily, all of her family members survived.
Gu Xianwei, a native from Guizhou Province, said he was driving by when the accident occurred. "Hearing a huge bang, I saw two trains crashed."
Gu rushed to the scene later and rescued many people out of the coaches with other rescuers.
Liu Hongtao, a host with Voice of Strait, a radio in Fuzhou, was on board the 4th coach of D301 when the collision occurred.
"The train suddenly shook violently, casting luggage all around," he said while being interviewed by China Central Television (CCTV) at 11 p.m. "Passengers cried for help but no crew responded."
A passenger failed to smash the window with a fire extinguisher but managed to open a crack. Other passengers rushed to crawl out of the train through the crack, he added.
"One coach perched like a chimney and another was broken in half," Chen Yujie, a host with Zhejiang traffic radio, who was at the scene, described the accident to CCTV.
Both Liu and Chen said they constantly saw lightning.
Rescuers carry an injured man from a damaged coach that veered off a road and overturned in Suoqian Town, Xiaoshan of Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, July 23, 2011.
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CONSTANT RESCUE
Zhao Yide, mayor of the Wenzhou City, said there were more than 1,400 passengers on the two trains, and the uninjured had been transported by buses.
"Searches are underway and we won't allow a single sign of life to slip away," said Zhao.
Two coaches fallen onto the ground were overlapping off the viaduct, which needed cranes and cutting machines for the rescue, Xinhua reporters at the scene said.
Zhejiang provincial department of health organized four medical teams heading to the scene, which comprised medical staff from the Zhejiang No.1 Hospital, Zhejiang No.2 Hospital, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital and Taizhou Hospital.
The department also required hospital staff near the site to rush to the scene for rescue work.
The blood center of Zhejiang Province is "fully prepared to guarantee rescue blood." The center was reported to have transported blood to Wenzhou from Lishui and Taizhou cities, according to the FM93.0 radio of Zhejiang.
The radio said hospital blood was in tight supply and called on Wenzhou residents to donate blood to the city's blood center.
More than 200 residents arrived at the Wenzhou blood center Saturday night. Pictures on weibo.com showed that the long queue included teenagers and young people in their twenties. They waited silently in the night for blood donation.
Right after the accident, Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu rushed to the ministry's control and command center in Beijing to guide the rescue. The latest news was that Sheng was heading for the accident scene.
Hu Yadong and Lu Chunfang, deputy ministers of railways, were also hurriedly going to the scene for rescue work.
At midnight Saturday, the ministry ordered an urgent overhaul of railway and train safety nationwide.
Lu Zushan, governor of Zhejiang Province, arrived at the scene early Sunday morning.
English.news.cn 2011-07-24 07:15:15
Rescue personnel work on the scene of the accident in Shuangyu Town in Wenzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province, on July 24, 2011. Up to now 32 people were dead and 171 injured. D301 train from Beijing to Fuzhou rear-ended the D3115 train at 8:50 p.m. The first four coaches of D301 and the 15th and 16th coaches of D3115 went off the line. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
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by Xinhua writers Ji Shaoting, Lu Qiuping and Zhang Yi
WENZHOU, July 24 (Xinhua) -- At least 33 people were killed and 190 others injured in a train crash and derailing accident late Saturday in east China's Zhejiang Province, according to the provincial emergency office.
Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao called for all-out efforts to rescue passengers and ordered to make rescue work a priority, according to a statement posted on the website of the Ministry of Railways.
The latest result of investigation released early Sunday morning by the Zhejiang provincial government showed that the accident occurred at 8:27 p.m. Saturday at the at the section of Shuangyu Town in Wenzhou City, when high-speed train D301 crashed into another bullet train D3115. Four coaches of D301 fell off the viaduct.
LIGHTNING-TRIGGERED CRASH
The accident occurred after high-speed train D3115 was allegedly hit by lightning and lost drive, and then rear-ended by another bullet train D301.
The former train was running from the provincial capital Hangzhou to the southeastern city of Fuzhou, and the latter one traveled from Beijing to Fuzhou.
The trains were administrated by two different regional railway bureaus -- train D3115 by the Shanghai Railway Bureau while train D301 by the Nanchang Railway Bureau.
In the opposite direction, high-speed train D3212 from southeastern city of Xiamen to Hangzhou was also stopped by lightning at about 8 p.m. Saturday. No passenger was injured, said Liu Jiwei who was on board.
Pan Yiheng, the driver of train D301, was stabbed to death by a brake handle in his chest. He triggered the emergency brake at the last moment of his life, according to the FM93.0 radio of Zhejiang.
At the No.1 Hospital attached to the Wenzhou Medical College, a man about 40 years old told Xinhua he was a passenger from the 16th coach of D3115. There were more than 60 passengers aboard the coach.
"We were trapped in the coach for more than one hour before five of us broke the window and crawled out," said the man, who did not reveal his name.
The five passengers also dragged an old man and a woman out of the coach, but the old man died half an hour later.
A woman surnamed Zhou in Lucheng District People's Hospital in Wenzhou said she was in the 11th coach on train D3115. She and her whole family, four adults and two children, got on the train from Hangzhou.
"At around 8 p.m. at the Yongjia station, the train was supposed to stop for one minute, but actually stayed for 25 minutes," Zhou told Xinhua.
"After it moved, we heard a 'bang' and it felt like an earthquake. I immediately held my five-year-old kid to my arms," she said.
Zhou got a bruise in her arms and her kid was injured on the head. Luckily, all of her family members survived.
Gu Xianwei, a native from Guizhou Province, said he was driving by when the accident occurred. "Hearing a huge bang, I saw two trains crashed."
Gu rushed to the scene later and rescued many people out of the coaches with other rescuers.
Liu Hongtao, a host with Voice of Strait, a radio in Fuzhou, was on board the 4th coach of D301 when the collision occurred.
"The train suddenly shook violently, casting luggage all around," he said while being interviewed by China Central Television (CCTV) at 11 p.m. "Passengers cried for help but no crew responded."
A passenger failed to smash the window with a fire extinguisher but managed to open a crack. Other passengers rushed to crawl out of the train through the crack, he added.
"One coach perched like a chimney and another was broken in half," Chen Yujie, a host with Zhejiang traffic radio, who was at the scene, described the accident to CCTV.
Both Liu and Chen said they constantly saw lightning.
Rescuers carry an injured man from a damaged coach that veered off a road and overturned in Suoqian Town, Xiaoshan of Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, July 23, 2011.
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CONSTANT RESCUE
Zhao Yide, mayor of the Wenzhou City, said there were more than 1,400 passengers on the two trains, and the uninjured had been transported by buses.
"Searches are underway and we won't allow a single sign of life to slip away," said Zhao.
Two coaches fallen onto the ground were overlapping off the viaduct, which needed cranes and cutting machines for the rescue, Xinhua reporters at the scene said.
Zhejiang provincial department of health organized four medical teams heading to the scene, which comprised medical staff from the Zhejiang No.1 Hospital, Zhejiang No.2 Hospital, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital and Taizhou Hospital.
The department also required hospital staff near the site to rush to the scene for rescue work.
The blood center of Zhejiang Province is "fully prepared to guarantee rescue blood." The center was reported to have transported blood to Wenzhou from Lishui and Taizhou cities, according to the FM93.0 radio of Zhejiang.
The radio said hospital blood was in tight supply and called on Wenzhou residents to donate blood to the city's blood center.
More than 200 residents arrived at the Wenzhou blood center Saturday night. Pictures on weibo.com showed that the long queue included teenagers and young people in their twenties. They waited silently in the night for blood donation.
Right after the accident, Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu rushed to the ministry's control and command center in Beijing to guide the rescue. The latest news was that Sheng was heading for the accident scene.
Hu Yadong and Lu Chunfang, deputy ministers of railways, were also hurriedly going to the scene for rescue work.
At midnight Saturday, the ministry ordered an urgent overhaul of railway and train safety nationwide.
Lu Zushan, governor of Zhejiang Province, arrived at the scene early Sunday morning.
Sheng called for immediate and the greatest efforts from the rescue teams to save the injured passengers, and he required an in-depth investigation in the accident.
Injured passengers are treated in Kangning Hospital in Wenzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province, July 24, 2011. Up to now 32 people were dead and 191 injured. D301 train from Beijing to Fuzhou rear-ended the D3115 train at 8:50 p.m. The first four coaches of D301 and the 15th and 16th coaches of D3115 went off the line. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
PUBLIC WORRIES
The public expressed their worries online over the operation of high-speed trains after the fatal incident. Many said they would not choose to take bullet trains.
A netizen called Su Yan doubted the safety of high-speed trains at the website of Wujin News.
"Who dares to take bullet trains or high-speed trains?" Su Yan said. "The operational safety of China's railways is seriously challenged, and it'll be a long and tough process to earn customers' trust again."
"China should not only learn technologies but also management," said Ma Xiaolin, a well-known public commentator.
Cai Chengping, director of the Tokyo-based Asia-Pacific Political and Economic Research Center, said at his microblog at weibo.com that Japan had suffered similar train derailing, but the safety condition improved a lot afterwards.
"China should learn from Japan on dealing with accidents," he said.
Actually, problems with China's fledgling high-speed railway have been in the spotlight in the past weeks after the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway started operation on June 30. Trains on the route have been delayed for at least three times because of power failure or lightning factors.
Injured passengers are treated in Kangning Hospital in Wenzhou City of east China's Zhejiang Province, July 24, 2011. Up to now 32 people were dead and 191 injured. D301 train from Beijing to Fuzhou rear-ended the D3115 train at 8:50 p.m. The first four coaches of D301 and the 15th and 16th coaches of D3115 went off the line. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
PUBLIC WORRIES
The public expressed their worries online over the operation of high-speed trains after the fatal incident. Many said they would not choose to take bullet trains.
A netizen called Su Yan doubted the safety of high-speed trains at the website of Wujin News.
"Who dares to take bullet trains or high-speed trains?" Su Yan said. "The operational safety of China's railways is seriously challenged, and it'll be a long and tough process to earn customers' trust again."
"China should not only learn technologies but also management," said Ma Xiaolin, a well-known public commentator.
Cai Chengping, director of the Tokyo-based Asia-Pacific Political and Economic Research Center, said at his microblog at weibo.com that Japan had suffered similar train derailing, but the safety condition improved a lot afterwards.
"China should learn from Japan on dealing with accidents," he said.
Actually, problems with China's fledgling high-speed railway have been in the spotlight in the past weeks after the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway started operation on June 30. Trains on the route have been delayed for at least three times because of power failure or lightning factors.
(Zhang Heping, Zhang Ran, Yue Deliang, Zhang Le, Qi Zhongxi and Zhu Shaobin contributed to the story.)
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