HUALIEN COUNTY, Taiwan (AP) – Prosecutors in Taiwan said on Saturday that they questioned the owner of an unmanned truck that fell on a railroad and caused the country’s worst train disaster in decades, which killed 51 people and injured 146, although none indictment has been registered.
The train was carrying 494 people at the beginning of a long holiday weekend on Friday, when it collided with the construction truck that slid down a slope above the tracks, the Taiwan Railway Administration said. Many passengers were crushed just before the train entered a tunnel, while some survivors were forced to jump out of the windows and walk along the roof of the train safely.
The truck’s emergency brake was not applied correctly, according to the government’s humanitarian aid center.
The district attorney’s office in eastern Hualien County, where the train derailed, confirmed that it interviewed the truck owner, among others, but was not ready to file a complaint. The prosecution team was visiting a morgue on Saturday to examine the bodies, said office spokeswoman Chou Fang-yi.
President Tsai Ing-wen is due to visit the site on Saturday.
“We asked the Transport Safety Committee to conduct a thorough investigation of the accident and, after fully clarifying the cause of the accident, we will explain it to everyone,” Tsai told reporters on Friday.
“We are asking passengers to forgive us for any delays,” she said.
Transport Minister Lin Chia-lung said repairs would be speeded up.
“When such a thing happens, I’m sorry and I will take full responsibility,” said Lin after visiting the site.
The head of the Taiwan Railway Administration, Chi Wen-chung, said his team had successfully removed the first derailed wagon from the site.
Two large construction cranes could be seen near the train, as workers examined and removed some parts in a remote wooded cliff area on the island’s east coast.
Repair work was also underway on the tracks, including the tunnel where part of the eight-car train fell. The operation is expected to be completed in a week, said Weng Hui-ping, head of the railway administration newsgroup. During repairs, all East Coast trains will run on tracks parallel to the one damaged in the accident, causing delays of 15 to 20 minutes, he said.
The National Fire Service confirmed the death toll – which included the newly married young driver and the assistant driver – and said more than 100 people were injured. The government’s disaster response center said it was the worst rail disaster in 73 years.
Train travel is popular during the four days of the Tomb Sweep holiday in Taiwan, when families often return to their hometowns to pay homage to the tombs of their elders.
Taiwan is a mountainous island and most of its 24 million inhabitants live on the plains along the north and west coasts, which are home to most of the island’s agricultural land, major cities and high-tech industries. The sparsely populated east, where the accident occurred, is popular with tourists, many of whom travel by train to avoid mountain roads.
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Jennings reported from Taipei, Taiwan.