The driver of a high-speed train in southern China has died and eight people have been injured after two cars derailed after falling into a mudslide, according to state media.
Key points:
- The train was entering a tunnel when it came across debris that had fallen on the tracks
- The video showed serious damage to the driver’s car, who died
- The cause of the accident is being investigated
The crash occurred early Saturday when the train entered a tunnel in the southern interior of Guizhou Province.
He had been traveling on a regular route to the Guangzhou Coastal Business Center.
According to the state broadcaster CCTV, the train derailed after colliding with debris that had fallen on the tracks near the tunnel.
Video footage released by several Chinese outlets showed severe damage to the driver’s car, which was pulverized by the impact, while the rest of the train remained largely intact.
Loading
A railroad driver and seven passengers were injured and taken to hospital, CCTV said, adding that “their lives were not in danger.”
“Unfortunately, the train driver died,” CCTV said.
Chinese media images showed confused passengers and children screaming in one of the train carriages after the crash, with food and belongings strewn across the car floor, otherwise undamaged.
“Oh my God, what happened?” You can hear a man speaking in English in the pictures.
The other 136 people on board the train were evacuated safely, according to CCTV.
The cause of the accident is being investigated.
Landslides have become commonplace in the region due to a combination of heavy rainfall and the development of infrastructure in mountainous areas.
China has the largest high-speed rail network in the world, with 40,000 kilometers of track nationwide and trains running at more than 300 kilometers per hour.
Hundreds of millions of passengers are transported each year, although this figure has been greatly reduced by pandemic-related travel restrictions.
The system security history has been generally good. But in 2017, 12 workers were killed in an explosion while building a high-speed rail tunnel in Guizhou.
A collision between two trains in 2011 on the outskirts of the southern city of Wenzhou caused at least 40 deaths and caused a public outcry over an apparent effort to cover the extent of the damage.
China’s aviation industry has also been under scrutiny recently following the still unexplained crash of a China Eastern Airlines passenger plane on March 21 that killed 132 people on board.
And on May 12, a Tibet Airlines flight with 122 people on board was leaving the southwestern city of Chongqing when it left the runway and caught fire.
No one was killed, but several passengers were hospitalized with minor injuries.
Cables / ABC