Taiwanese authorities have requested an arrest warrant for the driver of a construction vehicle that allegedly caused the derailment of a train that killed at least 50 people.
Taroko Express was transporting nearly 500 people across the island’s east coast on Friday, the first day of a religious festival when families gather to honor their ancestors when it fell into a tunnel outside Hualien City.
Police believe the train hit a truck that had slipped across a landfill from a maintenance workplace to the tracks. The front wagons of the train derailed and huddled inside the tunnel, being crushed against the walls, dividing and shattering.
Dozens were killed, including the 33-year-old driver, an assistant driver, a six-year-old girl and a French citizen. More than 70 people were trapped inside for hours, while other survivors smashed windows and crawled along the roof of the train to escape.
The truck driver was not inside when he slipped, and the police suspected that he had been “parked incorrectly”. He was taken for questioning on Friday afternoon, and the director of the Hualien district attorney’s office, Yu Hsiu-duan, later told reporters that an arrest warrant had been requested.
“In order to preserve the relevant evidence, we have several groups of prosecutors on site and they are searching the necessary locations,” said Yu.
The prosecution confirmed that it interviewed the truck driver, among others, but was not prepared to file the lawsuit. The prosecution team was visiting a morgue on Saturday to examine the bodies, said office spokeswoman Chou Fang-yi.
About 150 people were injured in the accident and 48 people were pronounced dead at the scene. Two of the wounded later died in the hospital. On Saturday morning, 40 people remained in the hospital, including four in intensive care. Authorities said on Saturday that 496 people were on board, including four railway employees, 372 seated passengers and 120 standing passengers.
Authorities warned that the death toll could still rise, because some parts of the bodies have not yet been properly identified. A rescuer at the crash site also said he was not sure whether more bodies could still be in the destroyed carriages trapped inside the tunnel.
A rescuer from the Red Cross Society told local media that the scene on arrival was “like hell” and suggested that there were several children and babies among the dead.
“Chairs were mutilated, objects were scattered on the floor and blood was everywhere,” Lin Chi-feng told the CNA.
“It was painful to see so many children and babies die in the accident,” he said.
All survivors were freed from the wreckage on Friday afternoon, and rescuers began cleaning the rear carriages on the track on Saturday, but the damaged carriages remained trapped inside the tunnel. Railway officials said it would take another week to clean up the site and resume services.
The Taiwanese government ordered all flags to be lowered at half-mast for three days, to honor the victim of the worst rail disaster to hit the island in decades. President Tsai Ing-wen is expected to visit injured survivors in hospitals on Saturday.