Ok I’m confused. I thought the train hit an object as it emerged from the tunnel. But from the graphic above, it was while going into the tunnel. In the graphic there seems to be a long track on which it was traveling in broad daylight before the crash. Wouldn’t an object of that size be visible to the driver way ahead of time in order to hit the brakes ?
The driver was coming out of a tunnel.
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Train has a minimum stopping distance of 600 meters at that speed.
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Unless you get rear-ended by another train.
I’ve seen video of that train driving through the tunnel previously.
At speed the driver only has a few seconds of visibility as it curves into it and it’s a fast train.
He pulled the brake 4 seconds before impact…But they needed a lot more than that to slow down.
He was coming around a curve and entering the tunnel.
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Probably the guy was looking for recyclables?
Has there been any information released about the two American women who died?
I know they released the name of the French man, but I haven’t seen any news about the Americans. Horrible tragedy.
I saw that they will be helping the families come to Taiwan and revising quarantine rules (safely) for the overseas relatives of the crash victims. https://focustaiwan.tw/society/202104050012
At least one of the Americans was Taiwanese American, and both were female, that’s all I heard.
He was driving towards Taidung. Difficult to see how he was entering a tunnel, but I might be wrong.
He was entering the tunnel. You can see the impact of the truck on the entrance to the tunnel. The tunnel is now being checked and repaired.
How could the train be entering a tunnel going southbound?
I don’t understand your question . All I know is that he was entering the tunnel…Are you confused about the carriage numbers ?
8 was the leading carriage in this case. They have engines on both sides of the train. That caused a lot of confusion.
Fair point. I didn’t think it through to a logical conclusion.
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what i understand is that the truck was on the tracks just before the tunnel. Trains heading south start with the largest number. So number 8 was the first car (EMU has no locomotive) , followed by 7, followed by 6, followed by 5, etc. The two train cars at the end was cars 2 and car 1 was the last, car 1 also has a head because it is a locomotive car (EMU) and will normally be the lead car going back up to Taipei, where the cars start at number 1 and ends at 8, etc.
The train, car number 8 hit the truck just before the tunnel and continued into the tunnel where it derailed and cars 7 and 6 were mangled into car 8. Thats where the cardboard with the numbers shown on tv the first day of the accident showed what looks like 10 dead in car 8, some 20 dead in cars 7 and 6. Some deaths in cars 5 and 4. And apparently no deaths in cars 3, 2 and 1.
The driver saw the truck on the track seconds before impact and was unable to stop the train. As i was saying earlier, I simply don’t think a train can stop going some 110kph just in the time a driver sees an object on the track.
The train was hit and derailed as it entered the tunnel, then.
technically the train hit the truck which was in its path and inertia saw it continue into the tunnel where it derailed with cars 7 and 6 smashing into car 8 and causing a lot of deaths in those cars. The first three cars saw the largest number of deaths.
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I’d go with momentum, but I get it now.
That’s right. Speed is an issue here. Also, the truck fell a short time before the train arrived. The driver reacted but it was way too late. He is not to blame in any way.
It feels uncomfortable on those trains, and I think you have a point about the line not being designed for that kind of speed. Risks might be mitigated by CCTV on both ends of the tunnel, perhaps, so the driver can see what’s on the other side. It’s easy to wise after the event of course, but yeah there’s something unsettling about the speed plus funnel-like effect. It’s inherently dangerous. Ultra precautions required.
the train hit the truck BEFORE it enters the tunnel , not after.
the point i like to make is that going 110kph a train has a lot of mass and that mass is not possible to stop just in the distance available for a human eyeball to see an obstruction and take action .The driver saw it and in the seconds that he had he activated the emergency brake but thats not enough to stop a train going 110kph.
The train i was on in taiwan when it hit that car at the level crossing the driver had seen the car too because we all felt a sudden deceleration but we continued way beyond the point of impact.
Human eyeball seeing an obstruction on the tracks is not able to stop a train travelling at speed.
Perhaps a new system needs to be devised where the train driver is a person who sits in the train car who monitors but the real driving is done by computer at central command. Such as like BART. Bart trains are not driven by drivers. They are driven by computers at central . Just like Taipei MRT system. Drivers can with permission take manual control but on the whole the system is automated.
TRA trains may need to have a central command where CCTV cameras are on each and every mile of track. And if sensors detect an abnormality on the rails it would automatically trigger a train shut down miles away.
This system will stop this type of accident from happening.
Not relying on mark 1 human eyeball.
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