Brake failure blamed for fatal train accident

By Tom Qian  |   2009-7-1  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

MONDAY'S fatal train crash in Chenzhou city, Hunan Province, which left three people dead and 63 injured, was caused by brake failure, People.com.cn reported yesterday.

A train from provincial capital Changsha heading to the southern city of Shenzhen in Guangdong Province failed to stop at Chenzhou station and collided with another Shenzhen-bound train early Monday, Sun Jing, vice general manager of Guangzhou Railway Group, which operates the station and the trains, said in a report to the State Administration of Work Safety early yesterday morning.

The pre-dawn crash left one resident and two passengers dead and 63 others injured, six of whom are critical, after two engines and seven carriages were derailed, according to Sun.

The K9017 train driven by Huang Shaomu crashed over a rail switch at 55 kilometers an hour at 2:31am in Chenzhou Railway Station after its brakes failed and collided with the K9063 train setting out from the station. Two passengers died on the trains and another person died in one of the neighboring houses that was damaged.