# Train crash in Taiwan; 48 dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 3, 2021, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-crash-in-taiwan-48-dead/939301 "2021-04-03T08:46:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-crash-in-taiwan-48-dead/939301/1 "2021-04-03T08:46:07Z")
[Train crash kills 48 in Taiwan’s worst rail tragedy in decades](https://www.aol.com/news/taiwan-train-rails-many-feared-030211992-093435755.html) > [@](#): > > By Ann Wang > > HUALIEN, Taiwan (Reuters) - A Taiwan express train with almost 500 aboard derailed in a tunnel on Friday, killing at least 48 passengers and injuring 66 in the island’s worst rail disaster in almost four decades. > > Images from the scene showed carriages in the tunnel ripped apart by the impact, with others crumpled, hindering rescuers in their efforts to reach passengers, although by mid-afternoon no one was still trapped. > > “People just fell all over each other, on top of one another,” a woman who survived the crash told domestic television. “It was terrifying. There were whole families there.” > > The crash, north of the eastern city of Hualien, killed the driver of the train carrying many tourists and people heading home at the start of a long weekend traditional holiday to tend to family graves. More at the link. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-crash-in-taiwan-48-dead/939301/2 "2021-04-03T09:10:16Z")
No comment on the story, I’m afraid, but I have reported it for forum change - I doubt you intended it for ATMB. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-crash-in-taiwan-48-dead/939301/3 "2021-04-03T10:51:17Z")
Moved to MPSIMS (from ATMB). ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-crash-in-taiwan-48-dead/939301/4 "2021-04-03T11:36:41Z")
Do we know when the truck “coasted” to the track? Did it just happen as the train approached? Or might it have been there for some time before - allowing for detection devices (if any) on the track to notify the driver of an obstruction (if it was not clearly visible)? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2021, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-crash-in-taiwan-48-dead/939301/5 "2021-04-03T12:39:53Z")
I read four articles about this, and one (NPR, as I recall) mentioned that it was the railway’s own truck or construction equipment that slid down the embankment. It was there to work on shoring up the embankment against landslides. If true, and combined with the fact (surmise?) that the parking brake wasn’t engaged, it looks like this changes from “railway (train crew) couldn’t do anything about it” to “railway (maintenance crew) caused it.” ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-crash-in-taiwan-48-dead/939301/6 "2021-04-16T16:20:03Z")
Truck driver charged: > **[Taiwan train crash: truck driver charged with negligent homicide](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/16/taiwan-train-crash-truck-driver-charged-negligent-homicide)** > > Forty-nine people died when train hit a railway maintenance vehicle that slid down an embankment ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2021, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-crash-in-taiwan-48-dead/939301/7 "2021-04-16T16:38:26Z")
The bigger context to this is that Taiwan is notorious for accidents of this sort, in part due to a culture of sloppiness. Over the past seven years alone, there have been the following deadly mishaps: - 2014: Kaohsiung pipe explosion. 32 dead - 2014: TransAsia plane crash. 48 dead - 2015: another TransAsia plane crash. 43 dead. - 2015: Xinbei water park fire, 15 dead from burns, nearly 200 others injured by burns. - 2016:Taoyuan bus fire. 26 dead. - 2018: Yilan train crash. 18 dead - 2021: Hualien train derailment from hitting truck: 49 dead On top of that, there have been numerous warplane crashes in the military, a crash of an Apache helicopter and also a fatal crash last year of a Blackhawk helo. During the 1999 earthquake, it was discovered that some building constructors had substituted empty steel cans for concrete in pillars, so as to cheap out on concrete.