53 dead in Japan's rush-hour train crash
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-25 23:52

Driver also hurt

The 23-year-old driver of the train, Ryujiro Takami, had 11 months experience at the job and last June also overran a station, another senior railway company official said, adding that it was unclear if he had been obeying the speed limit at the curve of 70 kilometres an hour.

Rescue personnel work at the site of a derailed commuter train that smashed into an apartment building in Amagasaki, western Japan, April 25, 2005. [Reuters]

The driver was seriously hurt but the conductor was co-operating with police trying to piece together the cause of the disaster. The railway also discovered markings which indicated rocks may have been on the track.

Survivors said the train was running late and seemed to be faster than usual.

"I used the same train everyday, but I felt it was going faster than usual," said Naomi Taniguchi, a 38-year-old businesswoman.

"At first I thought it was an earthquake," she said.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged renewed attention to safety after the crash.

The last accident of such magnitude in Japan was on May 14, 1991, when a head-on crash between trains in Shiga prefecture, also in western Japan, killed 42 passengers and injured 527 more.

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