A HIGH-SPEED passenger train jumped the rails and slammed into another train in eastern China yesterday, killing at least 70 people and injuring more than 400 in China's worst train accident in a decade.
The death toll could rise, with 70 in critical condition after the pre-dawn crash in a rural part of Shandong province, the official Xinhua news agency said.
It said a total of 420 people had been hurt. No foreigners were among the dead. Injured
survivors included the Chinese national sailing coach, four French nationals and a three-year-old boy.
Xinhua said that one of the trains might have been travelling much faster than the speed limit and authorities blamed human error.
"Although investigations are continuing, some investigators said that (the train] was travelling at 82mph before the accident, far in excess of the speed limit of 50mph," it added.
Xinhua said that two high-ranking railway officials in Shandong had been sacked immediately.
The crash just before the May Day long weekend holiday happened when a train travelling from Beijing to Qingdao – site of the sailing competition during the Olympics in August – derailed and hit a second passenger train. Nine of the first train's carriages were knocked into a ditch, Wang Yongping, a spokesman for the railway ministry said.
The second train, on its way from Yantai in Shandong to Xuzhou in eastern Jiangsu province was derailed, although it stayed upright.
One passenger, a 39-year-old woman described escaping the wreckage with her 13-year-old daughter through a crack in the floor of the carriage.
"We were still sleeping when the accident occurred. I suddenly woke up when I felt the train stopped with a jolt. It started off again, but soon toppled"
"Most passengers were still asleep, but some were standing in the aisle waiting to get off at the Zibo railway station," another passenger told the news agency.
"I suddenly felt the train, like a roller-coaster, topple ... to one side and all the way to the other side. When it finally went off the tracks, many people fell on me," she said.
The woman, who was on the train from Bejing, was injured when the train toppled into farmland beside the track.
She said villagers used farm tools to smash train windows to pull out trapped passengers.
"I saw a girl who was trying to help her boyfriend out of the train, but he was dead," she added.
A coach of China's sailing team, Hu Weidong, was seriously injured, Dr Zhang Jun said. "There were grave injuries to his neck and spine, which we fear could cause paralysis," Dr Zhang told Xinhua.
Dr Zhang said a three-year-old boy, Liu Jinhang, was probably the youngest injured, but was in stable condition after being treated for a broken arm.
It was the second major railway accident in Shandong this year. In January, 18 people died when a train slammed into a group of about 100 workers carrying out track maintenance near the city of Anqiu.
Liu Zhijun, the railway minister had arrived at the site and president Hu Jintao had dispatched vice premier Zhang Dejiang to the scene, Xinhua said.
"The city government of Zibo has sent a 1,500-member strong team to help and console the victims' families," Xinhua said, adding that railways spokesman Wang Yongping had expressed deep condolences for victims.
BILLIONS IN INVESTMENTCHINA has invested about £50 billion in its railways in the past few years and is expanding the system to accommodate what is the world's densest passenger and freight network.
As it stands, China's railways can barely keep pace with the country's breakneck economic growth, or with the hundreds of millions of workers who are flocking from the countryside to booming cities.
State television said the railway line, built in 1897, was due to be retired for all but goods trains in favour of a high-speed link to be ready in time to carry passengers from Beijing to Qingdao for the Olympic sailing events.
The local Qilu Evening News said the railway had begun a new timetable yesterday.
The full article contains 701 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
