China High Speed Trains Collide: 32 killed

[Sea Skimmer]

32 die in China high-speed train crash
High-speed train smashes into stalled train in China's eastern Zhejiang province

updated 1 hour 10 minutes ago 2011-07-23T21:09:28
SHANGHAI — At least 32 people died when a high-speed train smashed into a stalled train in China's eastern Zhejiang province Saturday, state media said, raising new questions about the safety of the fast-growing rail network.
The accident occurred on a bridge near the city of Wenzhou after the first train lost power due to a lightning strike and a bullet train following behind crashed into it, state television said.
The total power failure rendered useless an electronic safety system designed to warn following trains of stalled trains on the tracks up ahead, and automatically halt them before a collision can occur, the report added.
It showed one or possibly two carriages on the ground under the bridge, with another hanging above it. Several other carriages derailed in the accident near Wenzhou, some 860 miles south of Beijing.
More than 200 people have been taken to hospital, the official Xinhua news agency added.
One train was heading from Beijing to the coastal city of Fuzhou, the other was running from Zhejiang provincial capital Hangzhou, also to Fuzhou.
"The train suddenly shook violently, casting luggage all around," Xinhua quoted survivor Liu Hongtao as saying.
"Passengers cried for help but no crew responded."
State television broadcast appeals for people not involved in the rescue effort to stay away, saying they were hampering efforts to get survivors out of the wrecked carriages and to hospital.
Safety
The Railway Ministry has ordered emergency safety checks on the country's trains, Xinhua added.
Users on China's popular Twitter-like microblogging service Weibo spread appeals for people to donate blood and help look for lost relatives and friends.
"I'm looking for Lu Haitian who was in carriage 3. Please send along any clues you have!" wrote "Noodle Kung-fu."
Others, though, criticized the safety record of China's much-hyped high-speed trains.
The flagship Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line has been plagued by power outages, leaving passengers stranded on stuffy trains for hours at least three times since opening a month ago.
"China's high-speed trains are rubbish! They have frequent accidents and they've only been in service a few years," wrote "I believe in snow."
"We should learn from Japan. They've been running them for years with no problems."
The government has spent billions of dollars improving the railway network of the world's most populous country and has said it plans to spend $120 billion a year for several years on railway construction.
The Beijing-Shanghai link is the latest and most feted segment of a network the government hopes will stretch over 28,000 miles by the end of 2015.
Scandal
But the vast network has been hit by a series of scandals in addition to the safety incidents of the past few months. Three railway officials have been investigated for corruption so far this year, according to local media reports.
In February, Liu Zhijun was sacked as railways minister for "serious disciplinary violations." He had led the rail sector's investment drive over the past decade.
China's last major train disaster was in 2008, when an express train traveling from Beijing to the eastern coastal city of Qingdao derailed and collided with another train, killing 72 and injuring 416 people.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43865656/ns ... a_pacific/#

Pretty lucky all things considered, but another glaring demonstration of Chinese quality control problems. No accident like this has ever happened on the French TGV system that I can find, nor on Japan's lines. Signal control for high speed rail is based on active tracking of every train, rather then track sensors spotting passing trains, so a collision should simply be impossible. If anything breaks that should cause a shutdown since you know what everything should be doing rather then having a system built on assumptions like conventional railway signaling.

[Eulogy]

If Japan can learn to stop making shitty goods and actually have an industry, so can China. They have had a long, long time to learn from the best.

After a certain point, there is just no excuse for this kind of failure; the kind that has horrid and irrevocable consequences.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

If Japan can learn to stop making shitty goods and actually have an industry, so can China. They have had a long, long time to learn from the best.

After a certain point, there is just no excuse for this kind of failure; the kind that has horrid and irrevocable consequences.

China has the other side problem of corruption. The Rail ministry was dismantled, and the minister is currently under investigation, last I heard.

[fgalkin]

If Japan can learn to stop making shitty goods and actually have an industry, so can China. They have had a long, long time to learn from the best.

After a certain point, there is just no excuse for this kind of failure; the kind that has horrid and irrevocable consequences.

If Japan can learn to stop making shitty goods and actually have an industry, so can Germany. They have had a long, long time to learn from the best.

After a certain point, there is just no excuse for this kind of failure; the kind that has horrid and irrevocable consequences.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

[Sea Skimmer]

Mixed traffic on a regular rail line is a world of difference from a closed high speed network fgalkin. The signaling and train control systems are fundamentally different, and far less interconnected as demonstrated by the German collision being the result of a train going through a red signal. On a high speed network that kind of human error should be irrelevant because no track signals exist in the first place for the driver to miss.

[Teebs]

I don't think there's ever been a crash on dedicated high speed line before (excluding a couple of cases of breeze blocks being put on lines), in which case this sets an unpleasant precedent. I'm not sure they were true high speed trains though. I read in one article (not sure which) that they were only 100mph trains. If that's the case then they didn't run at the kind of speed that requires dedicated track and in cab signalling and so the extra safety features of true high speed rail might not have been present.

Edit: My mistake, it seems that the average speed was 100mph, not the top speed (250kmh), so these do appear to have been true high speed trains.

[Sea Skimmer]

Its high speed, but not the top end of the Chinese system thus the 250kph rather then 300-330kph for the fastest lines. The killed and wounded toll is now being given as 35 and 210, but apparently the car dangling from the viaduct may have other bodies inside. It seems the crash took place near an interchange of high speed lines and regular rail tracks; this would all else being equal at least increase the probability of a train control problem occurring.

The only train to train crash I'm aware of with high speed train took place in train yards and involved a conventional train striking at very low speed.

[Thanas]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster

[Teebs]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster

I didn't think that one happened on dedicated high speed track. I suppose that's pretty irrelevant though as it could have happened just as easily at any point since the flaw was in the train rather than the infrastructure.

[Lusankya]

Southern China often has issues with trains during the summer months. There's heavy rain, high temperatures and mountainous terrain, which leads to issues. Usually the issues tend to be things like minor the ground beneath the tracks being washed away, rather than train collissions though.

[Sea Skimmer]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eschede_train_disaster

Your point being? It was a derailment caused completely by an outstanding textbook case of German over engineering a simple vital piece of equipment, not a train to train collision. A number of high speed trains have derailed individually, it’s just almost always been from track problems or striking vehicles at grade crossings. None of them killed so many people because they didn't get unlucky enough to have bridges fall on top of them.

Ironically the Eschede disaster might not have been as bad had the train been of a faster design. The ICE design of that train still used conventional couplings which allowed the cars to be swung off the tracks and into the bridge. The faster train designs don’t work like that, the cars are semi rigidly and semi permanently coupled together which makes it much harder for the train to jackknife if it does come off the tracks. Its more likely to slide to a stop in a straight line. I'm not sure that would have been strong enough to have stopped it from crossing a thrown switch or if the coupling would have broken, but it can't have hurt.

I didn't think that one happened on dedicated high speed track. I suppose that's pretty irrelevant though as it could have happened just as easily at any point since the flaw was in the train rather than the infrastructure.

The track the train was on was an upgraded existing line of the 200kph type; it also had a normal line running parallel with numerous crossovers and ran some freight and lower speed passenger traffic. No real difference though, the fundamental problem was the incredibly dumb untested wheel design compounded a relatively weak bridge design. Different track configuration might have prevented such a high loss of life, but not the accident itself and signals meant nothing. As it is the TGV has derailed at nearly top speed (300kph) without a single loss of life in at least one case I recall. The ICE has also derailed at 200kph speed in other instances with no loss of life, I think from actually hitting livestock.

[Thanas]

My point is that German quality control or lack thereof has also caused trains to crash.

[Sea Skimmer]

Boy does it get better, the Chinese government decided to at once bury to two worst damaged railcars in a muddy hole right beside the tracks, rather then bother to inspect them or even cut them up for scrap, something China actually has a rather high need for. People are also saying you can see dead bodies fall out of one of the cars as they move it, but I watched it a couple times and I'm not seeing it. Video at the link.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... an-up.html

It also appears from what I've been reading the crash occurred because the Chinese high speed system, or at least this particular route simply does not have automatic signaling or train tracking systems that would stop the trains if something went wrong. So the system is simply designed like typical Chinese cheap crap in the first place and the safety systems they did have failed from the lighting strike.

[Zaune]

On a high speed network that kind of human error should be irrelevant because no track signals exist in the first place for the driver to miss.

Pardon the slight digression, but is there any good reason not to implement that system for both networks? The cost of retrofitting freight engines with onboard signalling receivers would be offset by the reduced lineside maintenance overhead, train safety would be increased still further and general-purpose freight locomotives could perform tasks like snowploughing or rescuing failed trains on the high-speed lines.

[madd0ct0r]

From the telegraph article seaskimmer linked to

Mr Wang was shouted at by reporters, however, after he fielded questions on a four-year-old girl who was found alive in the wreckage at 4pm on Sunday, at least six hours after a formal announcement that all the bodies in the carriages had been removed. Mr Wang said the discovery was a "miracle".

if this is true...

I can't see any bodies falling in the vid either, but they do seem to be carrying them out afterwards. Do the authorities seriously think they can 'bury' the story? It must have been more then missing track systems, otherwise they wouldn't be so keen to remove the carriages.

[Sea Skimmer]

Pardon the slight digression, but is there any good reason not to implement that system for both networks? The cost of retrofitting freight engines with onboard signalling receivers would be offset by the reduced lineside maintenance overhead, train safety would be increased still further and general-purpose freight locomotives could perform tasks like snowploughing or rescuing failed trains on the high-speed lines.

Freight operations are far more complicated and less standardized in terms of train movements, and yet also far slower, making such a system far less useful; and no, you aren't going to reduce maintenance costs. They'll go up. If you are snowplowing or rescuing a stranded train then normal operations should be shutdown and any diesel locomotives will operate in direct contact with the central traffic control center via radio.

[PainRack]

Anyone of you surfing the Chinese web sources on this yet? Its easily became the equivalent of conservartards China 9/11, what with the attempts to call for patriotism by Chinese officials while the net rages about cover-up, rumours and etc.

[Sea Skimmer]

Looks like the Chinese have come out and said the accident was caused by a green signal failing to change to red. Its very easy to see now why they reduced speed on the newest lines from 350kph to 300kph, I bet those don't have automatic train controls either. Looks like they also gave up the attempt to bury the railcars on site or else that was never actually the plan; though in pictures its pretty clear they did start digging a hole of some sort.

[cosmicalstorm]

They were probably betting on it being a minor event that they could get away with but it seems to have exploded even in the face of all censoring attempts.

[Winston Blake]

From this page (some pictures & links there).

#1
The Ministry of Railways has finally apologised for the catastrophic high-speed rail collision in Wenzhou.

#2
China Daily says two foreigners have been identified among the dead, but did not offer more details regarding their identity.

#3
Heads are beginning to roll. Among those dismissed from office so far are Long Jing, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau; Li Jia, head of the Shanghai railway bureau's committee of the Communist Party of China; and He Shengli, deputy chief of the bureau.

#4
Furious netizens are, however, baying for the blood of Minister of Railways, Sheng Guangzu (盛光祖). A post by author and independent candidate Li Chengpeng (李承鹏) asking Sheng to leave has been retweeted over 12,000 times. Another Weibo petition demanding the resignation of Sheng has been shared over 11,000 times.

#5
Highly curious. The Ministry of Railways has altered the timing of the accident from 20:34 to 20:27 and state media has followed suit. One eye-witness says the train in front was still rolling along slowly at 20:27. The collision happened seven minutes later. Conspiracy theories abound as to why the ministry has altered the timing.

#6
58 train services have been suspended, including 23 departing from Shanghai. Expect flight ticket prices to rise.

More after the jump...

#7
Locals in the vicinity of the collision site are convinced that authorities are burying the train carriages as soon as they can. None of those allegations have been verified.

#8
More catastrophic than the accident itself is the Ministry of Railways' handling of the crisis. At 4am Sunday, state media reported that no sign of life had been detected in the wreckage any more and rescue works had stopped at 2am. Alas, at 5am, one survivor was found. Later at 7am, state media once again reported that they were sure no survivors remain in the wreckage, and cranes began to move the fallen carriages around, as well as topple the one standing carriage (we know what happened when they did that). Much later in the day at 17:20, another survivor was found.

#9
The survivor found at 17:20 is a two-year-old female toddler.

#10
Blame it all on foreign technology! Board Secretary of CSR, manufacturer of the trains, Shao Renqiang (邵仁强) has said that the CRH1B trains used in the D3115 service are in fact Regina C2008 trains designed by Bombardier Transportation for Swedish railway.

#11
Drama at the press conference: Journalists from Wenzhou City News along with other reporters wait for hours outside a meeting room at the Wenzhou Shangri-La Hotel. When they finally had enough of waiting and pushed the door open, they found nobody in the meeting room. Apparently, officials had left via another exit, and they were left unclear whether the presser had already ended or moved to another location.

#12
Another source claims that only FOUR journalists were originally invited to the press conference. They were either from CCTV or Xinhua News Agency.

#13
The press conference finally takes place. Ministry of Railways spokesperson Wang Yongping (王勇平) denies claims that 43 people have died (see 6 min 30 sec). According to the information he has, only 35 have died so far. At 7 min 30 sec, a journalist asks Wang why the two-year-old female toddler (in update #9) was found so many hours after they had declared no more life was to be found in the wreckage. Wang replies, "It's a miracle." Journalists are horrified by his answer.

#14
A survivor gate-crashes the press conference. He asks Ministry of Railways spokesperson Wang Yongping, "I'm standing before you today because I managed to escape from the gallows of death by climbing out from the wreckage. Earlier, you said that everything would be settled appropriately. I want to know, appropriately according to whose standards? Yours or the travellers'?" Wang stands up and bows to the man, apologising for all the inconvenience he has had to experience. As for "appropriate settlements", Wang says he was referring to injured casualties. "If you weren't injured or hospitalised, we will also try to meet with your requests. As for your luggage, this was a very serious accident and we ask that you please give us some time."

#15
First picture of the Wenzhou toddler (in update #9) out via Wenzhou Evening News. Said to have been a premature baby, Xiang Weiyi (项炜伊) was saved 26 hours after the collision. Glad to know she's well enough to open her eyes:
wenzhou-toddler.jpg

#16
wenzhou-toddler-2.jpg Here in a picture dated July 15, Xiang Weiyi's father, Yu An (余岸) posts a picture of the toddler experiencing her first train ride on his Sina Weibo account. Unfortunately, father and daughter took another train ride on July 23 and that's when the deadly collision struck. The girl was found alive one day after the accident but her father remains lost.

#17
First to break the news of the collision was not any of the traditional news outlets but a Sina Weibo user @袁小芫 who tweeted at 20:38 on Saturday: "Problem on D301 at Wenzhou. The train came to a halt and then there was a very strong collision, and then a second one! And then the power went out! I'm in the last carriage. Hope nothing goes wrong!! This is too horrific!!"

#18
Crowdsourcing FTW: Because the Ministry of Railways is dragging its feet over publishing a list of victims, netizens have taken things into their own hands. Check out this continuously updated Google Document of with a list of victims including names, sex, age and other important data put together from a variety of sources. (h/t ChinaGeeks)

#19
The ill-fated driver of D301 was Pan Yiheng (潘一恒), who was stabbed to death in his chest by a brake handle as he activated the emergency brakes in the final moments of his life. Pan had worked as a train driver in the last 18 years, clocking 238,262 km without accidents.

Highlights from here:

This morning, the higher-ups issued directives to CCTV and the media: “Newest requirements regarding Wenzhou accident reporting: 1. Use death and casualty numbers issued by authoritative departments; 2. Reporting should not be too frequent; 3. Report more moving stories, such as people donating blood, taxis drivers not taking fares, etc.; 4. Don’t investigate the cause of the accident, use information issued by authoritative departments; 5. Don’t do reflections or commentary [on the accident/issues].

Propaganda notice: The Wenzhou train accident will be uniformly referred to as the “7.23 Yong-Wen Line Exceptionally Serious Railway Accident”.

The Wenzhou train accident from now on will be reported with “great love in the face of great disaster” as the main theme. Don’t question, don’t expand, don’t associate, and don’t repost [about the matter] on individual/personal microblogs! Appropriate service [charity/volunteer] information may be provided during television programs, but be careful of the atmosphere created by music selection!

Another article that may be of interest, from Japan:

China's train accident unthinkable here: expert

A Japanese expert who analyzed video footage of Saturday's fatal bullet train accident in China said Sunday it was an accident hard to imagine happening here, even though one of the trains involved appears to be one modeled on a domestic shinkansen.

A JR official said shinkansen systems have been equipped with automatic train control devices since they were inaugurated in 1964 because of the understanding that it would be difficult for the driver to rely on visual traffic confirmation of the need to apply the brakes on the high-speed service.

The ATC automatically stops a train if another is detected ahead.

If the system fails or power is lost, the brakes are applied automatically.

[Lusankya]

The accident is heavily affecting ticket sales for the high speed rail (sohu).

早报记者曾在铁路客户服务中心网（以下简称“客服网”），查询7月4日上海开往北京的列车余票情况。其中，上午8点始发的G12次、9点始发的G2次、10点始发的G14次、以及11点始发的G16次列车，二等座票数量均显示为“0”，即已经售罄，同时，观光座、一等包座和一等座票也所剩无几。

　　然而，昨日当记者再次登陆客服网查询余票情况时，已很难发现二等座票售罄的场景，唯一几趟出现余票“0”的高铁，也是杭州开往北京南的“G”字头。

　　记者查询8月2日数据显示，一度热门的G12次，G2次，G14次和G16次列车，二等座分别还剩余414张，372张，630张，624张。而下午从1点到4点区间段的二等座余票均在600张以上。

Earlier, journalists accessed the Railway Service Centre Website (RSCW) to research the excess capacity of Shanghai to Beijing trains for July the 4th. Of the trains invesigated, the 8am G12, the 9am G2, the 10am G14 and the 11am G16 all operated at 100% capacity for second class tickets, with the Sightseeing clas, first class cabin seats and first class seats also running at near full capacity.

However, when journalists inspected the excess capacity yesterday, very few trains were operating at capacity for second class tickets, with the only train operating at 100% capacity being the Hangzhou to Beijing South "G" high speed train.

The journalists investigations revealed that the popular G12, G2, G14 and G16 trains were running with an excess second class capacity of 414, 372, 630 and 624 seats respectively. All afternoon trains departing between 1pm and 4pm had over 600 unsold tickets.

[Edward Yee]

According to this, the toddler was found because a police captain was insistent on searching/clearing the train car while it was on the tracks instead of on the ground under the bridge.