1 killed and more injured when a TSR train hits a dump truck:
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1685911.php/LEAD-Taiwan-train-derails-after-hitting-dump-truck-killing-one
Pics of the aftermath
http://www.facebook.com/#!/media/set/?set=a.1767010071853.56487.1737234742&type=3
What the hell?? Jeez…
Froggers, it was the Taroko Express. That thing travels fast and it is usually full. 
Initial reports: 1 dead, 300 passengers, over 20 injured.
The truck driver “miscalculated”, but had enough time to jump. :ohreally:
[quote=“Icon”]
The truck driver “miscalculated”, but had enough time to jump. :ohreally:[/quote]
Survival of the fittest works its wonders again.
FFS.
I wonder how many ‘pie says’, red envelopes, or discussions with men in black BMWs will be required to get him off the hook for that one.
Don’t be so stupid, Finley.
It’s obviously the train driver’s fault. As the level crossing is technically a junction, he is automatically responsible for 30% of the accident. Besides, he was ‘going too fast.’ and the train is ‘bigger’, and so the train driver’s family should foot the compensation bill.
Well, let’s not jump to conclusions. The article doesn’t mention a level crossing. It just says “on the tracks”. In that case, the train driver should indeed have been paying attention to traffic conditions, but it seems likely that the truck driver was not proceeding slowly enough across the track; as we all know, one must move as slowly as possible when making any kind of risky manoeuvre in order to improve safety. Moreover, he may not have been carrying the regulation quantity of Guan Yin statuettes dangling across his windscreen, thus affording a dangerously unobstructed field of view and causing him to panic at the sight of an approaching train. It also seems most likely that his truck was blue, which is an inauspicious colour this week. All things considered, it doesn’t look good for him.
Was watching it on the news and what I could make out from the graphics was that the level-crossing was faulty and came down on the truck.
Even so if I was that truck driver I would of floored it and smashed the fuck out of the barrier, but I’m not.
If the barrier had failed, I’m sure I’ve seen alarm buttons on level crossings (same as other countries) … or perhaps that’s my imagination? There’s usually a VERY long lag between the barrier closing and the train passing, so it seems to me he must have skipped through at the last minute … unless there was also some sensor failure elsewhere. The “I miscalculated” thing implies that he had tried to run through.
But yeah … you would have thought a gravel truck could take out one of those bamboo-pole barriers without much effort. All in all, very sad and completely unnecessary … as usual.
Plus driver disappeared for an hour after the accident, though you can’t make much of that either. Just the shock. Horrible, horrible.
Sigh, I must admit, I don’t think I believe the barrier failure but, it could be true.
One would like to think that this would bring safety matters to the front, and that simply saying sorry [crying and all the other BS] is not sufficient… You know actually introduce tougher laws, better safety education. I just feel like I’m dreaming?
Sigh.
Since the other 9,534,867 times this sort of thing has happened didn’t bring safety to the front (or even within shouting distance of the back of the queue), I doubt this time will be any different. Anyone remember the long-distance bus driver from a few months back who killed half-a-dozen people by (IIRC) falling asleep at the wheel? He was fined NT$3000 and banned for a year, or something equally ridiculous. As long as you’re behind a wheel when it happens, you can cause as much mayhem as you like and pretty much walk away from it.
Having said that, the barrier operation (according to the TT) was pretty weird. They simply should not have opened if two trains were following each other so closely. Sounds like the TRA does bear some responsibility for this.
This is the kind of stuff that happens in the backwoods of Kyrgyzstan. Just once, I’d like to hear a Taiwanese police officer or politican step up and spell out to the general population why it’s happening here.
Let’s not bring Kyrgystan into this because I can’t spell it properly.
However, politicians and police officers and other people of similar standing in society have spoken up in the past about other things, only to find that their similar standing gets taken away from them. I’m sure they all know very well the consequences should they step out of line.
Railway barriers in Taiwan are very strange. There is one that I know of that you have to wait a good 7 or 8 minutes at while a train makes it’s way from a standing start at a station up an incline to travel through the gates. For trains coming from the opposite way, you only have to wait about 1 minute. Of course, this means that people are prone to lifting up the barriers and going through because they don’t want to wait for the train. Once you’ve done it once or twice for the ‘long’ wait, it doesn’t take long for people to take their chances with the short wait.
In the countryside it is common to see the flashing lights stuck on - sometimes for days, meaning that the barriers are confusing. Taiwanese are good at making justifications on the road, and once a set of lights is broken, it means that any other signal or barrier becomes invalid. Lights out, barriers down - well, the barriers must also have a problem.
On many crossings they have security guards to make sure cars and motorcycles actually heed the barriers and signals - it’s ridiculous that these types of crossings actually need to be supervised - at least there is some recognition that people are dumb and will take chances with trains.
[quote=“EddieG”]Driver killed as train plows into truck - Taipei Times
even worse:
[quote]Driver killed as train plows into truck - Taipei Times
The truck driver was also seen exiting the vehicle and trying to remove the barriers.[/quote]
Too bad the truck driver didn’t die. Shame about the train driver
[quote=“Confuzius”][quote=“EddieG”]Driver killed as train plows into truck - Taipei Times
even worse:
[quote]Driver killed as train plows into truck - Taipei Times
The truck driver was also seen exiting the vehicle and trying to remove the barriers.[/quote]
Too bad the truck driver didn’t die. Shame about the train driver[/quote]
The footage shows the barriers -both sides- went down for a while for the previous train. Then, this truck tried to cross and the barrier on the exit side came down exactly between the cabin and the load truck.
The driver’s mistake was trying to remove the barrier instead of hitting the emergency button. For future reference, there is supposed to be a big red STOP button next to the junction, in case someone or something gets stuck in the tracks. It sounds the alarm and puts the emergency system in place, which could have maybe lessened the accident.
So, even if he was not completely at fault, they will cruxify him.
That’s what I thought; I was sure I’d seen emergency stop buttons here in Taiwan. It seems to me that this is one of those cases where the ultimate cause is the fact that Taiwan does not have a driving test. If the license application procedure included questions about level crossings instead of the correct attire to wear when driving [one of my favourites from the scooter test] this might not have happened.
There are plenty of written questions about level crossings, anyway that wasn’t the problem here. My guess is there trucks queued up or blocking each other as you can them rushing through in the other lane of the footage.
So there were basically 10 seconds to pass the railway. The truck company also should sue TRA, how can the truck driver know he got 10 second to pass it?
So there were basically 10 seconds to pass the railway. The truck company also should sue TRA, how can the truck driver know he got 10 second to pass it?[/quote]
I think a better question is why were they still using the dangerous front entrance when the govenment had spent millions developing a truck route to the back of the concrete plant?
Crossing
maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=24 … 8,0,-3.15
Rear Entrance
maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ll=24 … 48,0,5.12