TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan Railways Corporation (TRC) has come under fire for being slow to act after its surveillance camera footage surfaced Wednesday (June 26), showing a landslide nearly 20 minutes before a train collided with the debris and derailed.
On Friday (June 21) the No. 229 Tze-Chiang Limited Express derailed after colliding with a landslide just outside Qingshui Tunnel between Heren and Chongde, inuring seven, including the driver. On Wednesday, Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷), Kuomintang (KMT) caucus secretary-general, posted TRC surveillance camera footage on Facebook taken of the landslide before the accident.
Hung said surveillance footage revealed a 19-minute window during which a warning could have been issued. Hung added that if action had been taken, the disaster could have been prevented.
Hung said the personnel responsible for monitoring wasted nearly 20 minutes. "Such negligence is unacceptable," said Hung.
In response, the TRC issued a press release on Wednesday saying there was no previous record of falling rocks at this location, so no rockfall warning system had been installed. It added the supposed surveillance camera was to observe water levels of Qingshui River.
According to Hualien Maintenance Office regulations, only when the rainfall reaches the warning level, will the monitoring station pull up the footage for observation. TRC said a review of the rainfall at that time showed an hourly accumulation of only 1 mm, far below the warning level of 20 mm, so the monitoring station did not check the footage.
TRC said it now stipulates that regardless of rainfall amount, the camera footage should be constantly displayed to ensure safety. In addition, a review of all potential landslides along the North Link Line has been conducted, and cameras have been added for manual monitoring.