Xinhua News Agency, Changsha, April 1st, Question: Why didn't the train stop in time? ——Tracking of T179 train derailment on Beijing-Guangzhou line

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua Perspective

At 11:40 on March 30, when the T179 passenger train from Jinan to Guangzhou passed the Yongxing County section of Hunan Province on the Beijing-Guangzhou line, a sudden landslide caused the train to crash into a collapsed body and derailed. The accident caused 1 death and 127 injuries, and some sections of the Beijing-Guangzhou line were once blocked.

According to a Xinhua Viewpoint reporter's on-site investigation, a villager called the "110" telephone before the accident. So why didn't the train stop in time? How can I avoid similar incidents?

"I called the police, but unfortunately failed to stop the accident"

"The carriage suddenly shook, and the water heater, refrigerator, and induction cooker fell down in a row. I don't know anything in front of me." Q179 passenger train chef Qiao Weiwei was still worried when he recalled the situation to the reporter at the hospital.

Qiao Weiwei said that at the time of the incident, there were two chefs, a quality inspector and a police officer in his dining car. "After waking up, I slowly climbed out of the car following the big crack at the junction of the carriage. However, the police officer who was in the carriage was unfortunately killed."

Anhui girl Sun Sasha's family of six took the T179 train to Guangzhou. "At the moment of the accident, the people and luggage in our carriage were squeezed into a pile, and then everyone broke through the glass windows with a fire hammer and crawled out."

The reporter saw at the scene that the violent impact caused the locomotive's locomotive to deviate from the track, and many cars overturned; some cars were severely damaged and were folded into a "V" shape. Both sides of the accident section were hillsides with steep slope protection and obvious landslide marks on the site.

"After hitting a landslide, the train jumped from the head." A villager who witnessed the accident at the scene told reporters that a lot of earth and stone had buried the tracks before the train reached the landslide section.

"I called the police!" Li Binghong, a villager who witnessed the scene of the accident, told a reporter from Xinhua Perspective that his child found a landslide while cycling on a road near the railway, and ran home to inform him of the situation. He immediately rode a motorcycle to the bridge near the landslide and dialed the "110" alarm phone at 11:29.

"When I arrived on the bridge, I saw that there were already a few people, and everyone called the police almost at the same time. It didn't take long before I saw the train coming. Someone was waving clothes to the train, but it was too late." Li Binghong said Although the police were called for the first time, it was a pity that it failed to stop the accident.

Why didn't the "110" call dialed about 10 minutes before the incident succeed?

According to various verifications by reporters, before the accident, the local "110" alarm platform did receive a call from the villagers. The local public security organ said that it is cooperating with the accident investigation team to conduct an investigation.

A source familiar with the local government told reporters that some villagers did call the "110" police 10 minutes before the incident. However, the "110" telephone is responsible for receiving the police from the local public security department, not directly to the railway department. Information transfer and dispatch must go through multiple links. It is too late to stop the train at this moment.

Personnel from the railway department told reporters that, under normal circumstances, after the railway patrol personnel found danger, they would contact nearby stations via internal communication equipment as soon as possible, and the station would issue instructions to stop the train.

"Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters tried hard to interview the train driver, but failed.

"The railway and local emergency response system was not straightforward." A person familiar with the matter told reporters that the local police station was about 10 minutes away from the incident, but because the jurisdiction was not clearly defined, and early warning information was verified, telephone contact, and driver braking Disposal takes time, and the warning signs fail to prevent the accident.

Industry insiders said that the joint prevention and control mechanism established by the railway and local governments is not perfect, especially in towns and townships and below. Some local cadres said that the maintenance of regular train lines is generally the responsibility of the railway department, with little local involvement; security risks are often difficult to play an early warning role if they are not discovered by the railway department itself.

Need to strengthen monitoring, early warning and technology upgrade

Some interviewed experts from Beijing Jiaotong University and Southwest Jiaotong University believe that the frequency of regular high-speed railway inspections should be increased in the season when geological disasters occur frequently. For mountain roads where disasters often occur, it is necessary to strengthen project management, install sensors and cameras on slopes, and use UAV technology to strengthen inspections.

At the same time, the training of locomotive crews' emergency information prediction and disposal capabilities should be strengthened. Optimize the management of train marshalling. For example, after the luggage cart is hung on the front of the locomotive, the generator car is placed at the end of the vehicle to play the role of a "buffer" for the luggage cart, reducing the risk of the generator car catching fire during an accident.

It was found that the failure to handle the information in a timely manner was the most concern of the accident. Experts believe that the rapid response mechanism of railway-local linkage alarms should be improved as soon as possible, and information integration capabilities should be optimized through the Internet and big data technologies to expand the coverage of the early-warning network and extend the reach of information to the grassroots. "It is necessary to establish a mechanism to incorporate the information witnessed by the general public and all abnormal developments into the early warning system," said an expert.

Some interviewed experts believe that the accident sounded the alarm bell for upgrading the safety protection of the old ordinary high-speed railway.

Many experts said that high-speed rail can use holographic sensing, status assessment, security protection and other information technology to promptly warn and effectively deal with the risks of some security accidents. In recent years, the newly repaired high-speed rail has begun to be equipped with the "safety system for integrated operation of air, space and ground information," and gradually realize unmanned intelligent driving. At present, the driving of ordinary-speed railway mainly depends on the visual inspection of the driver, and the maintenance and inspection along the route are mainly performed manually. It cannot ensure the real-time access to disaster information and prevent unexpected dangers.

Can all ordinary trains be replaced with high-speed trains in the future to reduce similar accidents? Experts say that high-speed rail is not suitable for freight, especially heavy freight. As a large manufacturing country, China needs to transport raw materials and finished products by ordinary speed railway. At the same time, China has a vast territory, unbalanced development, and very different geological and climatic conditions. The ordinary-speed railway has advantages in short-distance transportation and in satisfying public transportation. In the long historical period in the future, China's railway network will still be a high-speed The situation of rapid coexistence.

Therefore, experts believe that it is imminent to improve the safety protection capabilities of ordinary trains through the comprehensive upgrade of "civil defense + technical defense".

Some experts have suggested that the standard high-speed railway should be "end-end multi-functional", so that ordinary speed trains can also have a certain ability to sense environmental safety risks; "Internet of Things" should be used to allow ordinary speed rail cars, lines, stations and other systems " "Everything is interconnected"; with "brain intelligence", the results of environmental monitoring are applied to train operation control. The high-speed railway and the high-speed railway simultaneously construct a high-tech protection system of "global visibility, advanced prediction, active early warning, and three-dimensional protection" to ensure the safety of railway transportation. (Reporters Yang Jian, Su Xiaozhou, Shi Weiyan, Tan Chang)