China News Agency Chuzhou, April 1st, headline: Early warning villagers recall train derailment: failed to prevent accident
China News Agency reporter Lu Yi Xu Zhixiong
On March 30, the T179 passenger train from Jinan Station to Guangzhou Station suffered a derailment and rollover accident in Chenzhou, Hunan. The Guangzhou Railway Group reported on the same day that, due to the impact of successive days of rainfall, a line collapse occurred in the down section of the Beijing-Guangzhou line from Matianxu to Qifengdu Station.
The accident occurred in a mountain village in Yonghua Village, Gaotingsi Town, Yongxing County. Nearby villagers Li Binghong and Li Sanquan stood on the nearby railway overpass and watched it happen. 11 minutes before the incident, Li Binghong had called 110 to call the police to inform the police where the collapse was. Seeing the train approaching from a distance, Li Sanquan took off his jacket and waved continuously, hoping to remind the train driver of the danger ahead.
"If I (the alarm) prevented the accident from happening, I felt that I had done a good thing. But in the end, there was such a big accident, and I felt very heavy." Li Binghong expressed his regret and sadness when he introduced the situation to the reporter on the 31st.
On the day of the incident, affected by the epidemic, Li Binghong had not yet left for work, and her 11-year-old son had not yet started school. Near noon, her wife began to prepare lunch, and her son, who had been playing in the village on a newly bought bicycle, suddenly came home and told him that the railway had collapsed.
Li Binghong rode a motorcycle and quickly rushed to the side of the railway overpass next to the incident. He saw at the scene that the hillside beside the railway had collapsed and dirt had fallen on the tracks. "(If the train is coming) there must be something wrong." Li Binghong, who lived on the railway side all the year round, realized that the situation was dangerous, and quickly dialed 110 to call the police. His mobile phone call record showed that 110 calls were made at 11:29 on the 30th.
During the 1 minute and 30 second call, Li Binghong accurately informed the 110 police personnel that a landslide occurred at the railway overpass of the Yonghua Village on the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway. "(The respondent) responded and reported it immediately." Li Binghong said that he was at the end of the report He waited at the scene. During the call, he made several calls but failed to get through. Several villagers at the scene also called 110.
Their alarm didn't seem to work. Several villagers at the scene watched the train approach, Li Sanquan waved his clothes and shouted "Stop". "I hope the driver can see it." Li Sanquan said that he didn't know if the driver had seen it after a layer of protective iron netting. He soon saw the train hit a collapsed body and derailed through the railway bridge.
An official report showed that the incident occurred at 11:40 on March 30. Before the T179 train took off the line and rolled over, the train driver took emergency braking measures.
Train T179 is an express train. According to Li Wei, the captain of the vehicle business of the accident, on the eve of the incident, the train was traveling at a speed of about 100 kilometers per hour. Located in the rear compartment relatively far from the front of the train, he clearly felt the bumps during the emergency braking of the train, and he rushed forward.
Public information shows that China's current "Railway Technology Management Regulations" stipulate that the emergency braking distance of a train on any railway ramp is 800 meters. This means that train drivers need to see obstacles and react before 800 meters to be safe and safe.
On the day of the accident, the local area was rainy and rainy the day before. Whether the terrain and the weather at the time had enough space for the train driver to promptly notice the warning message of the villagers in front of the landslides or the bridges waving clothes, remains to be verified.
It is 11 minutes from the villagers' alarm to the incident whether this is sufficient to ensure that the early warning information is transmitted to the moving trains. It is also unknown at this time how the local police received the railway-related police information and the railway department.
The accident eventually resulted in the death of one railway police officer, with four seriously injured and 123 slightly injured. After emergency repairs by various forces, the accident line was restored to traffic on the 31st. As of press time, the cause of the accident is still under investigation. (Finish)