Wenzhou train collision
Encyclopedia
On 23 July 2011, two high-speed trains travelling on the Yongtaiwen railway line
collided on a viaduct
in the suburbs of Wenzhou
, Zhejiang
Province, China
. The two trains derailed
each other, and four cars fell off the viaduct. 40 people were killed, at least 192 were injured, 12 of which were severe injuries.
The collision was the first fatal crash involving high-speed rail
(HSR) in China, and the second-deadliest HSR accident in history following the 1998 Eschede train disaster
in Germany. A September 2011 investigation blamed faulty signal systems and mismanagement. The findings are under review.
Officials hastily concluded rescue operations, ordered the burial of the derailed cars, and issued directives to limit media coverage. The response elicited a slew of criticism from online communities and media outlets, including defiance of official regulations on state-owned networks. The accident, the first of its kind, had a profound effect on the development of high-speed rail in China
. Public confidence in high-speed rail eroded, leading to lower ridership. China's reputation in high-technology was scrutinized internationally. In response to the accident, Railways minister Sheng Guangzu
announced a comprehensive two-month railway safety review. Speeds on other major high-speed rail lines were uniformly slashed.
, China will by 2012 have more high-speed railway tracks than the rest of the world put together.
systems are designed to prevent any train from entering a stretch of track occupied by another train. But in the Wenzhou collision, Train D301 ran at high speed onto track occupied by Train D3115. This indicates a signal failure
. The 28 July 2011 announcement by the Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signals and Communication that signal equipment had a design flaw, and that it would "shoulder responsibility" for the accident, increases the likelihood that the accident was a result of signal failure.
The signalling technology installed on Chinese 200 km/h to 250 km/h high speed lines, including the Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway
where the accident occurred, is Chinese Train Control System
CTCS-2 http://www.emsd.gov.hk/emsd/e_download/about/symposium/2011/session/fullpaper/M4_Full%20Paper_CL%20Wang.pdf which is the Chinese version of European Train Control System
Level 1. The CTCS-2 system uses the classical technology of track circuit
s to detect the presence of a train on a piece of track. In addition, CTCS-2 uses both fixed-data balise
s (track-mounted transponders) and controllable-data balise
s controlled by a Lineside Electronic Unit (LEU) to transmit essential information and signal instructions from the Train Control Center to trains. Information and signal instructions are transmitted by the balises as "telegrams", which are picked up by a Balise Transmission Module mounted under the head of the train, and sent to an on-board "vital computer" for decoding. Using the data it has received, the computer calculates a "speed control curve" showing the maximum speed the train can maintain while allowing sufficient braking distance before any danger. The information is displayed to the train driver on a monitor. http://www.emsd.gov.hk/emsd/e_download/about/symposium/2011/session/fullpaper/M4_Full%20Paper_CL%20Wang.pdf Should the driver disregard this information by overspeeding, or enter a danger zone, the Vital Computer can make an automatic brake application.
As of 31 July 2011, Chinese authorities had failed to provide any logical explanation of why the safeguards built into the CTCS-2 signal technology had failed to work in the Wenzhou collision. Various announcements indicated both defects in equipment (Lightning strikes had disabled devices) and defects in operating procedures (staff operated signals in "manual mode"). Chinese official announcements were both confused and confusing. An Lusheng, the chief of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, was quoted as saying that a device had "failed to turn from green to red. " But CTCS-2 equipped trains do not rely on drivers observing green or red wayside signals, the driver has a computer-controlled monitor in front of him. Early announcements spoke of Train D3115 being stopped by a lightning strike, but that would not cause the accident. The second train D301 should not have been allowed to run into it. Whether Train D3115 was stopped by lightning or for any other reason is irrelevant.
The fuzzy and confused official announcements up to 31 July give increasing hints that a lightning strike caused some wayside-mounted piece of signal equipment to malfunction (possibly a track-circuit relay, or perhaps the train control centre computer). If the equipment was not Fail-safe
, an incorrect response by staff could then cause an accident. Significantly, on 28 July 2011, An Lusheng the chief of the Shanghai Railway Bureau 'faulted the quality of equipment, personnel and on-site controls. He described safeguards as "still quite weak."'
A high-ranking work safety official on Thursday (4 August 2011) ruled out the possibility of natural disaster causing July's high-speed train crash. "Now I can say for sure that this is not a natural disaster," Huang Yi, the spokesman and a leading official with the State Administration of Work Safety, said on Thursday during an online chat hosted by people.com.cn, the online arm of People's Daily. He added that the railway authorities had also pointed out loopholes and deficiencies in safety management, which had emerged in the accident.
. Train CRH1-046B is a variant of the Swedish Bombardier Regina, while the second train CRH2-139E is a derivative of the Japanese E2 Series Shinkansen
'bullet train.' Kawasaki and other companies in Japan are currently challenging China's high-speed rail project for patent license violations. The Chinese maker has been attempting to patent the same technology and alleged improvements.
The trains were of the "D train" class and thus in the first generation of China’s express trains, not the faster "G train" class, which travel at over 300 kph.
train D3115 (CRH1-046B), carrying 1,072 people and travelling from Hangzhou
to Fuzhou South
lost power before coming to a halt over a viaduct
near the Ou River. Shortly after, CRH
train D301 (CRH2-139E), carrying 558 people and running from Beijing South
to Fuzhou
, crashed into the rear-end of the stationary D3115.
The fifteenth and sixteenth coaches at the rear of D3115 and the front four coaches of D301 were derailed — four coaches fell off the viaduct. Three carriages came to rest horizontally on the ground below while the fourth came to rest vertically, one end on the ground and one end leaning against the viaduct.
The cause of the crash was initially said to be lightning storm occurring 20 miles (32.2 km) south and 60 miles (96.6 km) west of the viaduct.; lightning reportedly struck the first train, which caused it to lose power and stop on the tracks. However, five days after the incident, the Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signals and Communications Co. Ltd., a railway research institute, claimed responsibility, stating in a report that a signal
on the track failed to turn red, and staff failed to notice the error.
The various medical teams responding to the accident consisted of staff from Zhejiang No. 1 Hospital, Zhejiang No. 2 Hospital, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital and Taizhou Hospital. The evening of the event, 500 Wenzhou
residents gave blood in response to early radio appeals by the local blood bank
.
A survivor, Liu Hongtaohe, recalled that "the train suddenly shook violently, casting luggage all around. Passengers cried for help but no crew responded" in an interview with China Central Television
. CCTV reported on 25 July that the Railways Ministry had declared that 39 people were killed and 192 injured. Two-year-old Xiang Weiyi was the last person rescued, 21 hours after the train crash. Her parents had been killed in the crash.
Soon after the accident, the damaged railway carriages were seen being broken apart by backhoe
s and buried nearby. Chinese regulatory bodies gave as the preliminary cause a lighting strike on one of the line’s overhead power lines.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said on 25 July that two U.S. citizens were among the dead. The Italian consulate of Shanghai
said that an Italian citizen was among the dead: "Assunta Liguori", a 22 years-old student of the Università degli studi di Napoli L'Orientale. Assunta Liguori was travelling with "Giovanni Pan", a 23 years-old student from L'Orientale, of Chinese origin.
and Premier Wen Jiabao
called for "all-out efforts to rescue passengers". Train operations were suspended on the line while damaged infrastructure was repaired. Fifty-eight trains were canceled the following day. Sheng Guangzu
, the Railways Minister, ordered an investigation into the accident, and arrived at the scene of the accident on midday 24 July. He also apologised for the horrific accident.
The Ministry of Railways announced that three high ranking railway officials were fired immediately after the crash. They were identified as Long Jing, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau; Li Jia, party secretary
and the deputy chief of the bureau, He Shengli. The Chinese government had sacked railways minister Liu Zhijun
in February 2011, for allegedly taking over 800 million yuan in kickbacks connected with contracts for high-speed rail expansion. Zhang Shuguang (张曙光), the deputy chief engineer of China's railways, was also arrested in February 2011 and alleged to have amassed $2.8 billion in overseas accounts. The government ordered a two-month nationwide safety campaign on 26 July, as the families of victims demanded more answers. Sheng Guangzu apologised for the collision on behalf of the Railways department and said the campaign would focus on improving China's high-speed network.
Government officials had not explained by 25 July why the second train was apparently not warned of the disabled one before the crash took place.
Lawyers in China were ordered by the Wenzhou Judicial Bureau not to take on cases from the families of the crash victims. According to a statement issued by the Wenzhou Lawyers' Association, lawyers were told not to take cases because "the accident is a major sensitive issue concerning social stability". The Wenzhou Judicial Bureau later apologized for the statement, saying its wording had been formulated by the Lawyers' Association and had not been approved.
The Wenzhou train collision had an immediate and major effect on China's high-speed rail program. The Chinese government formed a commission to investigate the accident with a directive to report its findings in September 2011. On August 10, 2011, the Chinese government announced that it was suspending approvals of any new high-speed rail lines pending the outcome of the investigation. The Minister of Railways announced further cuts in the speed of Chinese high-speed trains, with the speed of the second-tier 'D' trains reduced from 250 km/h (155 mph) to 200 km/h (124 mph). The speed of the remaining 350 km/h trains between Shanghai and Hangzhou was reduced to 300 km/h as of August 28, 2011. To stimulate ridership, which had suffered due to concerns about safety, on August 16, 2011 ticket prices on Chinese high-speed trains were reduced by 5 percent.
The train crash sparked public anger on the safety of high speed trains in China and on the handling of the accident, even in otherwise tightly controlled Chinese media. Quality and safety concerns will likely have a serious impact on China's ambition to export cheap high speed train technology to other countries.
In November 2011, the state-controlled Beijing News reported that an investigation by the Chinese government into the collision has concluded that "poor management of the local railway administration" was to blame.
, several Chinese newspapers have published editorials criticising the railway ministry, and the state-run "Global Times" had an unusually scathing editorial. Friday 29 July a second directive was issued banning all coverage of the story 'except positive news or that issued by the authorities', the sudden ban forced newspapers to scrap seven day anniversary stories they had prepared, the "China Business Journal" scrapped eight pages, "21st Century Business Herald" twelve pages and the "Beijing News" nine pages. The state run Xinhua newswire was forced to warn subscribers not to use an investigative report it had issued. The ban was flouted by Beijing-based weekly The Economic Observer
, which published an eight-page feature on 30 July, with a front-page letter pledging to pursue the truth on behalf of Xiang Weiyi, the 2-year old survivor who was orphaned in the crash.
s and buried nearby. The Railway Ministry justified the burial by claiming that the trains contained valuable "national level" technology that could be stolen. In a press conference, the spokesman of the Railway Ministry, Wang Yongping, said that the burial was for facilitating the rescue work. He said to the press, "whether or not you believe [this explanation], I believe it." ("至于你信不信，我反正信了.") When being questioned why a girl was found after the rescue work had been announced finished, he said, "It was a miracle. We did find a living girl in the work thereafter. That was what happened." ("这是一个奇迹。我们确实在后面的工作当中发现了一个活着的女孩，事情就是这个样子。") There were no signs that any expert entered the front car to investigate the cause of the accident when it was buried. Families of the victims of the crash were outraged at what they viewed was an inadequate investigation, as well as poor organisation and relief in the aftermath of the disaster. Images of the wreckage being shovelled into the pits were circulated widely on the Internet, and led to speculation over a possible mishandling by the government or concealing evidence crucial for the ongoing investigation.
Despite reported directives from the Propaganda Department, various Chinese media, both independent and state-owned, directly criticized the Ministry of Railways and questioned the government. Such challenges to officially-sanctioned orthodoxy, particularly on programs aired on China's state-owned television, was seen as unusual and rare. In response to the press conference by Ministry of Railways spokesperson Liu Yongping, who provided assurance that the Chinese railway system was running on "advanced technology", news anchor Bai Yansong
retorted on CCTV, "The technology may be advanced, but is your management advanced? Are your standard operating procedures advanced? Is the supervision advanced? Is your respect for people advanced? Are all the minute details advanced? At the end of the day, is your overall operational capability advanced?" Vocal host Qiu Qiming of CCTV program 24-Hours aimed his remarks at Chinese government and society: "If nobody can be safe, do we still want this speed? Can we drink a glass of milk that's safe? Can we stay in an apartment that will not fall apart? Can the roads we travel on in our cities not collapse? Can we travel in safe trains? And if and when a major accident does happen, can we not be in a hurry to bury the trains? Can we afford the people a basic sense of security? China, please slow down. If you're too fast, you may leave the souls of your people behind."
Qi Qixin, a professor at the Transportation Research Institute of Beijing University of Technology
, was quoted to have said "I think the problem may have come from the mistakes of dispatching management, instead of technological failure," and "The system should have an ability to automatically issue a warning or even stop a train under such circumstances," in a press release. Ren Xianfang, senior analyst at IHS Global Insight in Beijing, said that the pace of development in China had been "phenomenal", but warned it could not be sustained in the long run.
The driver of the crashed train, Pan Yiheng, was hailed as a hero in some quarters on 26 July, for preventing the disaster from becoming worse. He tried to brake the train to keep it from crashing into the rear of the train ahead; he was killed when the brake handle pierced his chest in the crash. It has been stated that had he not acted, at least one more train car would have been derailed, likely increasing the death toll.
Internet users were sceptical that the crash was caused by a natural disaster, instead blaming officials, with one frequently forwarded comment on Sina Weibo service stating "When a country is so corrupt that one lightning strike can cause a train crash … none of us is exempt. China today is a train rushing through a lightning storm … we are all passengers".
When the Ministry of Railways spokesman Wang Yongping, who had defended such actions as burying damaged train cars immediately after the Wenzhou collison, was fired and promptly assigned to a new post in Poland, a Chinese web post commented sarcastically "Quick! Sell all your Polish high-speed rail stocks!" and numerous cartoons, and even a music video ridiculing him, appeared.
Shares in CSR Corp., which built one of the two trains in a joint venture with Canada's Bombardier Inc
, fell by 14%, while China Automation Group Ltd., which was responsible for the design and production of the safety and control systems for railways, saw its shares fall by 19% in Hong Kong
on 24 and 25 July. China Rail Construction, builder of more than half of the nation’s rail links since 1949, fell 6.7%. Shares in China Railway Group also temporarily slid down 7.7%. The high-speed rail woes added to negative market sentiment from the U.S. debt deadlock, sending the Shanghai Composite Index down 3 per cent to 2,688.75. CNR shares fell 9.7%.
Edwin Merner, the president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo
, reckoned the crash would cause a temporary loss of trust in Chinese railway technology.
Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway
The Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway is a dual-track, electrified, high-speed rail line in Zhejiang Province on the eastern coast of China. The line, also known as the Yongtaiwen Railway, is named after the three primary cities along route: Ningbo, whose abbreviated Chinese name is Yong, Taizhou...
collided on a viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
in the suburbs of Wenzhou
Wenzhou
Wenzhou is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. The area under its jurisdiction, which includes two satellite cities and six counties, had a population of 9,122,100 as of 2010....
, Zhejiang
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. The word Zhejiang was the old name of the Qiantang River, which passes through Hangzhou, the provincial capital...
Province, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. The two trains derailed
Derailment
A derailment is an accident on a railway or tramway in which a rail vehicle, or part or all of a train, leaves the tracks on which it is travelling, with consequent damage and in many cases injury and/or death....
each other, and four cars fell off the viaduct. 40 people were killed, at least 192 were injured, 12 of which were severe injuries.
The collision was the first fatal crash involving high-speed rail
High-speed rail in China
High-speed rail in China refers to any commercial train service in the China with an average speed of or higher. By that measure, China has the world's longest high-speed rail network with about of routes in service as of June 2011 including of rail lines with top speeds of...
(HSR) in China, and the second-deadliest HSR accident in history following the 1998 Eschede train disaster
Eschede train disaster
The Eschede train disaster was the world's deadliest high-speed train accident. It occurred on 3 June 1998, near the village of Eschede in the Celle district of Lower Saxony, Germany. The toll of 101 people dead and 88 injured surpassed the 1971 Dahlerau train disaster as the deadliest accident in...
in Germany. A September 2011 investigation blamed faulty signal systems and mismanagement. The findings are under review.
Officials hastily concluded rescue operations, ordered the burial of the derailed cars, and issued directives to limit media coverage. The response elicited a slew of criticism from online communities and media outlets, including defiance of official regulations on state-owned networks. The accident, the first of its kind, had a profound effect on the development of high-speed rail in China
High-speed rail in China
High-speed rail in China refers to any commercial train service in the China with an average speed of or higher. By that measure, China has the world's longest high-speed rail network with about of routes in service as of June 2011 including of rail lines with top speeds of...
. Public confidence in high-speed rail eroded, leading to lower ridership. China's reputation in high-technology was scrutinized internationally. In response to the accident, Railways minister Sheng Guangzu
Sheng Guangzu
Sheng Guangzu is the Party Chief and railway minister of the Ministry of Railways, replacing Liu Zhijun who is facing allegations of corruption. He was formerly the head of the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China...
announced a comprehensive two-month railway safety review. Speeds on other major high-speed rail lines were uniformly slashed.
Background
The Chinese government has invested billions of dollars in the rapid expansion of its high-speed railway network in recent years, including over RMB¥ 700 billion (US$109 billion) on high speed rail in 2010. China’s high speed rail now stretches across more than 8538 km (5,305.3 mi) expanding to 13000 km (8,077.8 mi) by 2012, and is planned to double to about 16000 km (9,942 mi) by 2020. The nation's entire 91000 km (56,544.9 mi) rail network carried 1.68 billion rides in 2010 with little or no cause for alarm. According to the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, China will by 2012 have more high-speed railway tracks than the rest of the world put together.
Signalling
Railway signallingRailway signalling
Railway signalling is a system used to control railway traffic safely, essentially to prevent trains from colliding. Being guided by fixed rails, trains are uniquely susceptible to collision; furthermore, trains cannot stop quickly, and frequently operate at speeds that do not enable them to stop...
systems are designed to prevent any train from entering a stretch of track occupied by another train. But in the Wenzhou collision, Train D301 ran at high speed onto track occupied by Train D3115. This indicates a signal failure
Wrong-side failure
A wrong side failure describes a failure condition in a piece of railway signalling equipment that results in an unsafe state.A typical example would be a signal showing a 'proceed' aspect when it should be showing a 'stop' or 'danger' aspect, resulting in a "false clear"...
. The 28 July 2011 announcement by the Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signals and Communication that signal equipment had a design flaw, and that it would "shoulder responsibility" for the accident, increases the likelihood that the accident was a result of signal failure.
The signalling technology installed on Chinese 200 km/h to 250 km/h high speed lines, including the Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway
Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway
The Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou Railway is a dual-track, electrified, high-speed rail line in Zhejiang Province on the eastern coast of China. The line, also known as the Yongtaiwen Railway, is named after the three primary cities along route: Ningbo, whose abbreviated Chinese name is Yong, Taizhou...
where the accident occurred, is Chinese Train Control System
Chinese Train Control System
The Chinese Train Control System is a train control system used on railway lines in People's Republic of China. CTCS is similar to the European Train Control System ....
CTCS-2 http://www.emsd.gov.hk/emsd/e_download/about/symposium/2011/session/fullpaper/M4_Full%20Paper_CL%20Wang.pdf which is the Chinese version of European Train Control System
European Train Control System
The European Train Control System is a signalling, control andtrain protection system designed to replace the many incompatible safety systems currently used by European railways, especially on high-speed lines.- History :...
Level 1. The CTCS-2 system uses the classical technology of track circuit
Track circuit
A track circuit is a simple electrical device used to detect the absence of a train on rail tracks, used to inform signallers and control relevant signals.- Principles and operation :...
s to detect the presence of a train on a piece of track. In addition, CTCS-2 uses both fixed-data balise
Balise
A balise is an electronic beacon or transponder placed between the rails of a railway as part of an Automatic Train Protection system. The French word "balise" is used to distinguish these beacons from other kinds of beacon....
s (track-mounted transponders) and controllable-data balise
Balise
A balise is an electronic beacon or transponder placed between the rails of a railway as part of an Automatic Train Protection system. The French word "balise" is used to distinguish these beacons from other kinds of beacon....
s controlled by a Lineside Electronic Unit (LEU) to transmit essential information and signal instructions from the Train Control Center to trains. Information and signal instructions are transmitted by the balises as "telegrams", which are picked up by a Balise Transmission Module mounted under the head of the train, and sent to an on-board "vital computer" for decoding. Using the data it has received, the computer calculates a "speed control curve" showing the maximum speed the train can maintain while allowing sufficient braking distance before any danger. The information is displayed to the train driver on a monitor. http://www.emsd.gov.hk/emsd/e_download/about/symposium/2011/session/fullpaper/M4_Full%20Paper_CL%20Wang.pdf Should the driver disregard this information by overspeeding, or enter a danger zone, the Vital Computer can make an automatic brake application.
As of 31 July 2011, Chinese authorities had failed to provide any logical explanation of why the safeguards built into the CTCS-2 signal technology had failed to work in the Wenzhou collision. Various announcements indicated both defects in equipment (Lightning strikes had disabled devices) and defects in operating procedures (staff operated signals in "manual mode"). Chinese official announcements were both confused and confusing. An Lusheng, the chief of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, was quoted as saying that a device had "failed to turn from green to red. " But CTCS-2 equipped trains do not rely on drivers observing green or red wayside signals, the driver has a computer-controlled monitor in front of him. Early announcements spoke of Train D3115 being stopped by a lightning strike, but that would not cause the accident. The second train D301 should not have been allowed to run into it. Whether Train D3115 was stopped by lightning or for any other reason is irrelevant.
The fuzzy and confused official announcements up to 31 July give increasing hints that a lightning strike caused some wayside-mounted piece of signal equipment to malfunction (possibly a track-circuit relay, or perhaps the train control centre computer). If the equipment was not Fail-safe
Fail-safe
A fail-safe or fail-secure device is one that, in the event of failure, responds in a way that will cause no harm, or at least a minimum of harm, to other devices or danger to personnel....
, an incorrect response by staff could then cause an accident. Significantly, on 28 July 2011, An Lusheng the chief of the Shanghai Railway Bureau 'faulted the quality of equipment, personnel and on-site controls. He described safeguards as "still quite weak."'
A high-ranking work safety official on Thursday (4 August 2011) ruled out the possibility of natural disaster causing July's high-speed train crash. "Now I can say for sure that this is not a natural disaster," Huang Yi, the spokesman and a leading official with the State Administration of Work Safety, said on Thursday during an online chat hosted by people.com.cn, the online arm of People's Daily. He added that the railway authorities had also pointed out loopholes and deficiencies in safety management, which had emerged in the accident.
Rolling stock
The two trains involved were based on internationally-proven technology from Bombardier and KawasakiKawasaki Heavy Industries
is an international corporation based in Japan. It has headquarters in both Chūō-ku, Kobe and Minato, Tokyo.The company is named after its founder Shōzō Kawasaki and has no connection with the city of Kawasaki, Kanagawa....
. Train CRH1-046B is a variant of the Swedish Bombardier Regina, while the second train CRH2-139E is a derivative of the Japanese E2 Series Shinkansen
E2 Series Shinkansen
The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen train type operated by East Japan Railway Company on the Tōhoku and Nagano Shinkansen high-speed lines in Japan since 1997. They are formed in 8- and 10-car sets. The 8-car sets are used on the Nagano Shinkansen, and the 10-car sets on Tōhoku Shinkansen...
'bullet train.' Kawasaki and other companies in Japan are currently challenging China's high-speed rail project for patent license violations. The Chinese maker has been attempting to patent the same technology and alleged improvements.
The trains were of the "D train" class and thus in the first generation of China’s express trains, not the faster "G train" class, which travel at over 300 kph.
Accident chronology
On 23 July, at roughly 20:00 CST, CRHChina Railway High-speed
China Railway High-speed ; ) is the high-speed rail system operated by China Railways.Hexie Hao is the designation for high-speed trains running on this rail system. At the middle of the run, all trains were marked "CRH" on the centre of the head vehicle and the side of the walls of each vehicle...
train D3115 (CRH1-046B), carrying 1,072 people and travelling from Hangzhou
Hangzhou Railway Station
Hangzhou Railway Station is located in Shangcheng District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province of China. It is affiliated to Shanghai Railway Bureau, and is also the terminal of Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway. The station is ranked first-class....
to Fuzhou South
Fuzhou South Railway Station
Fuzhou South Railway Station is a railway station located in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, People's Republic of China, on the Wenfu Railway and Fuxia Railway which operated by Nanchang Railway Bureau, Ministry of Railways of the PRC.-History:...
lost power before coming to a halt over a viaduct
Viaduct
A viaduct is a bridge composed of several small spans. The term viaduct is derived from the Latin via for road and ducere to lead something. However, the Ancient Romans did not use that term per se; it is a modern derivation from an analogy with aqueduct. Like the Roman aqueducts, many early...
near the Ou River. Shortly after, CRH
China Railway High-speed
China Railway High-speed ; ) is the high-speed rail system operated by China Railways.Hexie Hao is the designation for high-speed trains running on this rail system. At the middle of the run, all trains were marked "CRH" on the centre of the head vehicle and the side of the walls of each vehicle...
train D301 (CRH2-139E), carrying 558 people and running from Beijing South
Beijing south railway station
The current Beijing South Railway Station is a large railway station on the south side of Beijing that opened on August 1, 2008. The new station replaced the old Beijing South Station, first known as the Majiapu Railway Station and later known as the Yongdingmen Railway Station before 1988, which...
to Fuzhou
Fuzhou Railway Station
Fuzhou Railway Station is a railway station located in Fuzhou, Fujian Province, People's Republic of China, on the Wenzhou–Fuzhou Railway, Nanping–Fuzhou Railway, and Fuxia Railway which operated by Nanchang Railway Bureau, Ministry of Railways of the PRC....
, crashed into the rear-end of the stationary D3115.
The fifteenth and sixteenth coaches at the rear of D3115 and the front four coaches of D301 were derailed — four coaches fell off the viaduct. Three carriages came to rest horizontally on the ground below while the fourth came to rest vertically, one end on the ground and one end leaning against the viaduct.
The cause of the crash was initially said to be lightning storm occurring 20 miles (32.2 km) south and 60 miles (96.6 km) west of the viaduct.; lightning reportedly struck the first train, which caused it to lose power and stop on the tracks. However, five days after the incident, the Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signals and Communications Co. Ltd., a railway research institute, claimed responsibility, stating in a report that a signal
Railway signal
A signal is a mechanical or electrical device erected beside a railway line to pass information relating to the state of the line ahead to train/engine drivers. The driver interprets the signal's indication and acts accordingly...
on the track failed to turn red, and staff failed to notice the error.
The various medical teams responding to the accident consisted of staff from Zhejiang No. 1 Hospital, Zhejiang No. 2 Hospital, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital and Taizhou Hospital. The evening of the event, 500 Wenzhou
Wenzhou
Wenzhou is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. The area under its jurisdiction, which includes two satellite cities and six counties, had a population of 9,122,100 as of 2010....
residents gave blood in response to early radio appeals by the local blood bank
Blood bank
A blood bank is a cache or bank of blood or blood components, gathered as a result of blood donation, stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusion. The term "blood bank" typically refers to a division of a hospital laboratory where the storage of blood product occurs and where proper...
.
A survivor, Liu Hongtaohe, recalled that "the train suddenly shook violently, casting luggage all around. Passengers cried for help but no crew responded" in an interview with China Central Television
China Central Television
China Central Television or Chinese Central Television, commonly abbreviated as CCTV, is the major state television broadcaster in mainland China. CCTV has a network of 19 channels broadcasting different programmes and is accessible to more than one billion viewers...
. CCTV reported on 25 July that the Railways Ministry had declared that 39 people were killed and 192 injured. Two-year-old Xiang Weiyi was the last person rescued, 21 hours after the train crash. Her parents had been killed in the crash.
Soon after the accident, the damaged railway carriages were seen being broken apart by backhoe
Backhoe
A backhoe, also called a rear actor or back actor, is a piece of excavating equipment or digger consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. They are typically mounted on the back of a tractor or front loader...
s and buried nearby. Chinese regulatory bodies gave as the preliminary cause a lighting strike on one of the line’s overhead power lines.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said on 25 July that two U.S. citizens were among the dead. The Italian consulate of Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
said that an Italian citizen was among the dead: "Assunta Liguori", a 22 years-old student of the Università degli studi di Napoli L'Orientale. Assunta Liguori was travelling with "Giovanni Pan", a 23 years-old student from L'Orientale, of Chinese origin.
Government response
CPC General-secretary, President Hu JintaoHu Jintao
Hu Jintao is the current Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China. He has held the titles of General Secretary of the Communist Party of China since 2002, President of the People's Republic of China since 2003, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission since 2004, succeeding Jiang...
and Premier Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao
Wen Jiabao is the sixth and current Premier and Party secretary of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, serving as China's head of government and leading its cabinet. In his capacity as Premier, Wen is regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy...
called for "all-out efforts to rescue passengers". Train operations were suspended on the line while damaged infrastructure was repaired. Fifty-eight trains were canceled the following day. Sheng Guangzu
Sheng Guangzu
Sheng Guangzu is the Party Chief and railway minister of the Ministry of Railways, replacing Liu Zhijun who is facing allegations of corruption. He was formerly the head of the General Administration of Customs of the People's Republic of China...
, the Railways Minister, ordered an investigation into the accident, and arrived at the scene of the accident on midday 24 July. He also apologised for the horrific accident.
The Ministry of Railways announced that three high ranking railway officials were fired immediately after the crash. They were identified as Long Jing, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau; Li Jia, party secretary
Party chief of the Communist Party of China
In the Politics of the People's Republic of China, a party chief , variously called a party boss, and officially termed the Communist Party Committee Secretary for a certain region, is the leader of the local Communist Party of China division, and in most cases, the de facto first-in-charge of its...
and the deputy chief of the bureau, He Shengli. The Chinese government had sacked railways minister Liu Zhijun
Liu Zhijun
Liu Zhijun is a Chinese politician. He was the Minister of Railways in the People's Republic of China from 2003 to 2011. He was removed from the party chief of the ministry on February 12, 2011, and from office in the 11th NPC Standing Committee's 19th meeting on February 25 because of allegations...
in February 2011, for allegedly taking over 800 million yuan in kickbacks connected with contracts for high-speed rail expansion. Zhang Shuguang (张曙光), the deputy chief engineer of China's railways, was also arrested in February 2011 and alleged to have amassed $2.8 billion in overseas accounts. The government ordered a two-month nationwide safety campaign on 26 July, as the families of victims demanded more answers. Sheng Guangzu apologised for the collision on behalf of the Railways department and said the campaign would focus on improving China's high-speed network.
Government officials had not explained by 25 July why the second train was apparently not warned of the disabled one before the crash took place.
Lawyers in China were ordered by the Wenzhou Judicial Bureau not to take on cases from the families of the crash victims. According to a statement issued by the Wenzhou Lawyers' Association, lawyers were told not to take cases because "the accident is a major sensitive issue concerning social stability". The Wenzhou Judicial Bureau later apologized for the statement, saying its wording had been formulated by the Lawyers' Association and had not been approved.
The Wenzhou train collision had an immediate and major effect on China's high-speed rail program. The Chinese government formed a commission to investigate the accident with a directive to report its findings in September 2011. On August 10, 2011, the Chinese government announced that it was suspending approvals of any new high-speed rail lines pending the outcome of the investigation. The Minister of Railways announced further cuts in the speed of Chinese high-speed trains, with the speed of the second-tier 'D' trains reduced from 250 km/h (155 mph) to 200 km/h (124 mph). The speed of the remaining 350 km/h trains between Shanghai and Hangzhou was reduced to 300 km/h as of August 28, 2011. To stimulate ridership, which had suffered due to concerns about safety, on August 16, 2011 ticket prices on Chinese high-speed trains were reduced by 5 percent.
The train crash sparked public anger on the safety of high speed trains in China and on the handling of the accident, even in otherwise tightly controlled Chinese media. Quality and safety concerns will likely have a serious impact on China's ambition to export cheap high speed train technology to other countries.
In November 2011, the state-controlled Beijing News reported that an investigation by the Chinese government into the collision has concluded that "poor management of the local railway administration" was to blame.
Official media directives
The Chinese authorities have been accused of attempting to silence reports into the cause of the crash. The Chinese Communist Party's propaganda department has reportedly ordered the media not to send reporters to the scene, not to report too frequently and not to link the story to high-speed rail development. Thompson Reuters reported that the propaganda department issued directives to the nation's media instructing them to not question or elaborate on reports of the train crash. In their coverage, media were directed to promote the theme 'in the face of great tragedy, there's great love.' Xinhuanet released a number of state sponsored, touching stories as Propaganda Department's indication, such as "Love in this sublimation," "a city of love and warm" and comments. Still, according to the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, several Chinese newspapers have published editorials criticising the railway ministry, and the state-run "Global Times" had an unusually scathing editorial. Friday 29 July a second directive was issued banning all coverage of the story 'except positive news or that issued by the authorities', the sudden ban forced newspapers to scrap seven day anniversary stories they had prepared, the "China Business Journal" scrapped eight pages, "21st Century Business Herald" twelve pages and the "Beijing News" nine pages. The state run Xinhua newswire was forced to warn subscribers not to use an investigative report it had issued. The ban was flouted by Beijing-based weekly The Economic Observer
The Economic Observer
The Economic Observer is an independent, weekly simplified Chinese-language newspaper published in the People's Republic of China since April 2001....
, which published an eight-page feature on 30 July, with a front-page letter pledging to pursue the truth on behalf of Xiang Weiyi, the 2-year old survivor who was orphaned in the crash.
Public reactions
Hours after the rescuers had been told to stop searching for survivors and had begun cutting apart the wrecked carriages, a 2-year-old girl was found alive in the wreckage. And less than a day after the accident, the damaged train cars were seen being broken apart by backhoeBackhoe
A backhoe, also called a rear actor or back actor, is a piece of excavating equipment or digger consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. They are typically mounted on the back of a tractor or front loader...
s and buried nearby. The Railway Ministry justified the burial by claiming that the trains contained valuable "national level" technology that could be stolen. In a press conference, the spokesman of the Railway Ministry, Wang Yongping, said that the burial was for facilitating the rescue work. He said to the press, "whether or not you believe [this explanation], I believe it." ("至于你信不信，我反正信了.") When being questioned why a girl was found after the rescue work had been announced finished, he said, "It was a miracle. We did find a living girl in the work thereafter. That was what happened." ("这是一个奇迹。我们确实在后面的工作当中发现了一个活着的女孩，事情就是这个样子。") There were no signs that any expert entered the front car to investigate the cause of the accident when it was buried. Families of the victims of the crash were outraged at what they viewed was an inadequate investigation, as well as poor organisation and relief in the aftermath of the disaster. Images of the wreckage being shovelled into the pits were circulated widely on the Internet, and led to speculation over a possible mishandling by the government or concealing evidence crucial for the ongoing investigation.
Despite reported directives from the Propaganda Department, various Chinese media, both independent and state-owned, directly criticized the Ministry of Railways and questioned the government. Such challenges to officially-sanctioned orthodoxy, particularly on programs aired on China's state-owned television, was seen as unusual and rare. In response to the press conference by Ministry of Railways spokesperson Liu Yongping, who provided assurance that the Chinese railway system was running on "advanced technology", news anchor Bai Yansong
Bai Yansong
Bai Yansong is a prominent Chinese news anchor and journalist affiliated with China Central Television, China's national television network, and is known for his articulate and confident style. He was born in Inner Mongolia, China and is an ethnic Mongol. Bai was one of CCTV's major news anchors...
retorted on CCTV, "The technology may be advanced, but is your management advanced? Are your standard operating procedures advanced? Is the supervision advanced? Is your respect for people advanced? Are all the minute details advanced? At the end of the day, is your overall operational capability advanced?" Vocal host Qiu Qiming of CCTV program 24-Hours aimed his remarks at Chinese government and society: "If nobody can be safe, do we still want this speed? Can we drink a glass of milk that's safe? Can we stay in an apartment that will not fall apart? Can the roads we travel on in our cities not collapse? Can we travel in safe trains? And if and when a major accident does happen, can we not be in a hurry to bury the trains? Can we afford the people a basic sense of security? China, please slow down. If you're too fast, you may leave the souls of your people behind."
Qi Qixin, a professor at the Transportation Research Institute of Beijing University of Technology
Beijing University of Technology
Beijing University of Technology , also called Beijing Polytechnic University or Bei Gong Da , is recognized as one of the Project 211 universities...
, was quoted to have said "I think the problem may have come from the mistakes of dispatching management, instead of technological failure," and "The system should have an ability to automatically issue a warning or even stop a train under such circumstances," in a press release. Ren Xianfang, senior analyst at IHS Global Insight in Beijing, said that the pace of development in China had been "phenomenal", but warned it could not be sustained in the long run.
The driver of the crashed train, Pan Yiheng, was hailed as a hero in some quarters on 26 July, for preventing the disaster from becoming worse. He tried to brake the train to keep it from crashing into the rear of the train ahead; he was killed when the brake handle pierced his chest in the crash. It has been stated that had he not acted, at least one more train car would have been derailed, likely increasing the death toll.
Internet users were sceptical that the crash was caused by a natural disaster, instead blaming officials, with one frequently forwarded comment on Sina Weibo service stating "When a country is so corrupt that one lightning strike can cause a train crash … none of us is exempt. China today is a train rushing through a lightning storm … we are all passengers".
When the Ministry of Railways spokesman Wang Yongping, who had defended such actions as burying damaged train cars immediately after the Wenzhou collison, was fired and promptly assigned to a new post in Poland, a Chinese web post commented sarcastically "Quick! Sell all your Polish high-speed rail stocks!" and numerous cartoons, and even a music video ridiculing him, appeared.
Shares in CSR Corp., which built one of the two trains in a joint venture with Canada's Bombardier Inc
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
, fell by 14%, while China Automation Group Ltd., which was responsible for the design and production of the safety and control systems for railways, saw its shares fall by 19% in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
on 24 and 25 July. China Rail Construction, builder of more than half of the nation’s rail links since 1949, fell 6.7%. Shares in China Railway Group also temporarily slid down 7.7%. The high-speed rail woes added to negative market sentiment from the U.S. debt deadlock, sending the Shanghai Composite Index down 3 per cent to 2,688.75. CNR shares fell 9.7%.
Overseas reactions
An official at Saudi Railways Organization, the kingdom's train network operator, declined to comment on the Chinese crash or whether it might affect the company's decision to award a part of a 2009 $1,800,000,000 rail contract to a Chinese company.Edwin Merner, the president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, reckoned the crash would cause a temporary loss of trust in Chinese railway technology.
