Today (April 25th 2005) one of the local JR trains de-railed at a curve and plowed in to a near by apartment block and cars. 57 people were killed with over 400 injured. The train was doing 133kmph on a 70kmph limit section of track. The driver was only 23 and had only been driving a train for 11 months. He should have had a professional with him but he did not. This morning the death total was 37 but it keeps rising due to the seriously injured dieing from their injuries. There aren't really any "good" pictures on the net as of yet. From the picture below you can see the mangled train with the apartment block that it crashed in to behind it. UPDATE - just saw on the news that the train shot right through one station without slowing down. So it may have been possible that the driver had fallen unconscious. Also from the computer reconstruction it shows that one of the train's cars actually wrapped it's self around the corner of the apartment block. This is where the most deaths happened Yakumo
Saw it on the news this morning... a sad matter. However, from what I gather, train accidents are very rare in Japan, you have to give 'em that (at least compared to india)
Yeah, train accidents are very uncommon in Japan. I just saw another news artical and it seems that the driver didn't go through a station but over shot the platform then backed up. This made him 90 seconds late which is why he was speeding. The poor guy probably was worried about losing his job for being 90 seconds late at the next station. Now (if he isn't dead) will have much more to worry about. The accident took place nowhere near Shimonoseki so nobody I know was on that train. I feel sorry for the people woh were on it though. Yakumo
Freakie. I was just watching the first detective conan movie last night and that had a part with a train in it but it was a bit different. Insted they were trying to keep trains from blowing up from solar powered bombs that were placed on the tracks. I feel sorry for all thoes who died in that crash.
nah, it's not the first time it happened in 40 years over there, it's the most deadly train accident over there in 40 years.
This link has some viewable pictures: http://www2.asahi.com/special/050425/photo/index.html Look at the 3rd to the last photo. Notice how the train cart is basically about 1 foot wide, and apparently that's the 2nd cart, not the 1st. The first is on the other side of the building. This is a bad fucking wreck. The last time there was anything like this a train derailed on the Hibiya-line just before Nakameguro. The back carriage derailed and flew into one in the oncoming train. Only a handful of people died... somewhere around 10-15. The thing is, the Hibiya-line is a subway, that's only above ground for a couple of stations. Very bad timing.
Sounds like me in Densha de Go!, and that's why I should never be a train driver... It was even on the news on local radio over here. Nasty shit - in the past few years in the UK there's been almost annual train crashes, so we're used to hearing about them, but I don't think they've ever been *this* bad.
You won't believe me now GaijinPunch but that Nakameguro crash was the train that I took every morning on the way to work only that day I was ill. How fucking freaky is that !?! That's no bull shit either ! I used to live in nakameguro for 5 months. Yakumo
The death total is now up to 73 people Also new information is appearing about the incident. Originally they said the train over shot the platform (the one before it crashed) by 9 meters but it turns out that it over shot it by 40 meters !! That's half the length of the train. We also still don't know if the driver was killed or not. Yakumo
i think even if the public authoritys know that he is alive they will held that secret since this guy will be in a very high danger of getting killed from some people that lost family members in that event what i dont understand with all those electronics in trains why do they not install speed limiters anyway ? i mean from what i read the train was nearly twice as fast as allowed (130 kph instead of 70kph)
The trains do have a limiter called ATS. Fans of Densha De Go will probably know about that. The problem is that the ATS system on this train didn't work on the section of track where the crash took place. JR (Japan Rail) said that there are two types of ATS. One that slows down the train automatically if it travels too fast and another which I couldn't understand but has something to do with red lights. The train that crashed had the second type, the one I couldn't understand but they did say that the type of ATS that this train had wouldn't work on that section of track. Pretty stupid idea using that type of train on that thrack then. Yakumo
Yakumo it is strange when i heard the news yesterday i imediately thought of you and hoped no one you knew was injured and yes i feel the pain.
Yeah, I used to ride it, but from Ebisu to Roppongi... just a couple of stations passed Nakameguro... when it was safe, and underground. The line may be cursed. That's the line the Sarin gas attack was on at Kasumigaseki station... where Bank of America was (luckily before I worked there).
Must of felt like an eathquake for the folks in the building. Can you just image the people in the bottom apartment looking out there balcony window and seeing a freekin train wraped around it...damn crazy stuff
The building was a parking garage, so I've heard. What time was the wreck? I assume the dead would be well into the hundreds had it been rush hour. Not like trains in Osaka are ever empty though.
The train accident happened 9:20 AM. Many young people who used train to go college were died in the accident.
