The ****trait of an Accident prone "Olympic Host" -- Scores killed in
Chinese train collision
-- Micky's humble comment: It is also re****ted by Chinese language media
that one of the train carries the double duty of spreading the message
for Beijing Olympics. It is definitely not a lucky omen for the now
infamous games --
International Herald Tribune
Scores killed in Chinese train collision
By Andrew Jacobs
Monday, April 28, 2008
BEIJING: A pre-dawn collision between two passenger trains in a rural
part of Eastern China on Monday has killed at least 66 people and
injured 400, according to the authorities, making it one of the
deadliest rail accidents in a decade. Officials said that 70 of the
injured were in critical condition.
The two trains, one heading from Beijing to Qingdao and the other
traveling between Yantai and Xuzhou, collided around 4:40 a.m. outside
the town of Zibo, Shandong province. Witnesses said one train derailed
on a bend in the tracks and then struck the other, throwing at least ten
carriages into a ditch.
Images shown on Chinese television and on Internet websites showed the
train cars strewn about a field and passengers wrapped in white sheets
sitting or standing near the wreckage. Rail officials said 57 people
were killed instantly and that four of the wounded were French nationals.
Last September, a freight train derailed on a different section of the
line, although there were no fatalities. In January, 18 track workers
were killed on the line after they were struck by a night train
traveling 75 m.p.h. State television said the century-old rail line was
scheduled for replacement by a high-speed link between the capital and
Qingdao. The city, which is on the Yellow Sea about 500 miles from
Beijing, will host sailing events during the Olympics.
Prior to Monday's accident, the deadliest rail incident in recent memory
occurred in 1997, when two trains collided in the central province of
Hunan, killing more than 100 people. Chinese newspapers re****t frequent
railway fatalities, although most of them involve small numbers of
deaths from collisions between trains and vehicles at track crossings.
China has one of the world's most heavily used rail systems, with more
than 1.3 billion rider trips annually. In recent years, at least $100
billion has been spent on improvements and expanded service.
Rail officials said they would investigate Monday's accident, which
received heavy coverage on Chinese television and news websites. Xinhua
re****ted that four of the injured passengers were French nationals.
Officials said the trains were traveling at full speed and most of the
passengers were asleep at the time of the crash. Reached by phone on
Monday morning, hospital officials in Zibo said the injured began
arriving around 5 a.m., with about 100 ambulances ferrying the injured
to local hospitals.
A medical worker at the People Liberation Army's No. 148 Hospital said
more than 82 of the injured had been brought there and that family
members had begun arriving by late morning. An emergency room worker at
Zibo Central Hospital said 40 patients were being treated there. "Now
the situation of patients is stable," she said. "Some have lower back
fractures, some have fractures to the chest and some have broken legs."
Yuanxi Huang contributed research.
International Herald Tribune Copyright
www.iht.com
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