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Human error and excessive speed caused Japanese Train Accident
A commuter train is seen derailed in Amagasaki, western Japan Monday. The seven-car commuter train derailed after colliding with a car at a railway crossing. (AP/Kyodo News)
More than 55 people are killed and more than 200 people are injured in what is described as one of the worst train accident in Japan. The train accident is attributed to excessive speed and human error. The train failed to stop at a station and then came back to that station and then tried to make up the time with excessive speed. It went out of control near a sharp turn.
The crowded commuter train derailed and plowed into an apartment building in western Japan on Monday.
The seven-car commuter train operated by West Japan Railway Co. also hit an automobile at the crossing near Amagasaki, about 400 kilometres west of Tokyo, but it was not immediately clear if the car was hit before or after the derailment.
Officials said the cause of the accident was not yet known but survivors told national broadcaster NHK that the train seemed to be moving too fast when it hit a curve near the apartment house. The rail company reported that the train, which was carrying 580 passengers, had overshot the stop line at the last station before the accident.
The train operator apologized for the accident.
"Our most important task now is to rescue the passengers from the accident and we are doing our best," railway president Takeshi Kakiuchi told reporters.
The train's driver, 23, was in serious condition, Kyodo News Agency said. The railway said he had 11 months of experience.
The train jumped the rails as it approached a trackside apartment house. TV footage showed wrecked cars of the train piled accordion-like at the base of the building. Hundreds of survivors and rescue officials swarmed the site.
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