At least 18 people have been killed and over 180 people injured after a passenger train in northeast Taiwan was derailed in the deadliest train accident in 27 years.
Traveling between Taipei and Taitung, the Puyuma Express 6432 had 366 passengers when it derailed close to Xinma station with all eight carriages falling off the tracks and four overturning. At least three children were among the dead.
Subscribe to
NextShark's Newsletter
A daily dose of Asian America's essential stories, in under 5 minutes.
Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories to your inbox daily for free.
Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive.
A security camera managed to capture the exact moment the train’s carriages fell on its side, causing severe injuries and multiple casualties to those in the flipped trains.
“The train was going very fast. I hit a wall when the car started to flip. Around five to six people were thrown out of the carriage door,” passenger Henry Tseng told Reuters via BBC News.
“There [was] no time to think what happened. Everyone was in a rush to get out.”
Firefighters and first responders worked throughout the night to remove passengers from the train, according to BBC News.
The train itself was only six years old and was still considered to be in “pretty good condition,” according to Jackson Lu, the director-general of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA),
The train was moving at a speed of 87 miles per hour (140 kph), almost double the speed limit of 46 mph (74 kph) in that area. As of the time of writing, there is no known cause of the accident, though speculations include speeding and a non-operating brake fail-safe. Train services resumed once the zig-zagged trains were removed from the rails.
