Puyuma Derailment: Gov’t Must Avoid Quick and Cavalier Handling of the Aftermath and Investigation

  Puyuma Derailment: Gov’t Must Avoid Quick and Cavalier Handling of the Aftermath and Investigation

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

October 23, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

On the evening of October 21st, a Puyuma express train derailed, causing a serious accident; this was the most serious disaster for Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) in nearly four decades. The investigation into the causes of the accident must not be given to TRA’s “Railway Safety Committee” for execution; for this reason, the Cabinet has set up an investigation group. However, Premier Lai Ching-te instructed the Justice Ministry and the prosecutors to complete as soon as possible the preservation of evidence, allowing TRA in the shortest of time to undergo repairs to resume normal operations; President Tsai even demanded the resumption of two-way operations within three days. Such pursuit of quick results in the handling of the aftermath cannot totally prevent the occurrence of the next railroad accident.

On June 3, 1998, an unprecedented fatal high-speed rail accident in Celle, Germany caused the death of 101 people; after the accident, Germany quickly set up at the highest-level, an emergency response center, while the Railways Ministry and the Federal Railway Administration jointly established an independent investigation group. At the first stage, after emergency repairs and trial runs, operations resumed on the 9^th, cutting the speed from the original 200 kph to 160 kph.

More importantly, Germany did not only repair the train cars and rail sections at the accident, but also spent over a year to replace all the single-cast wheelsets and all trains were refitted with safety windows of nearly 100 sets of high-speed trains, quite a huge engineering project. The damaged cars of the train were preserved for as long as five years for continued investigation studies of the relevant units. The Railway Administration was worried that perhaps there were still areas that needed to be strengthened; prudence is the necessary attitude for handling accidents.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the TRA have been loose in handling the Puyuma accident. The reasons for the accident have not been determined, but Premier Lai demanded to cut short preservation of the evidence, while the President ordered two-way operations with a deadline; this is the wrong approach. The core of the proper handling in a disaster aftermath is to extract lessons to ensure that the old path would not be re-trodden. 

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