Amagasaki rail crash
The railway accident in Amagasaki (Japanese: JR福 知 山 线 脱 线 事故/ jeiāru - Fukuchiyama -sen dassen jiko / derailment accident on the JR Fukuchiyama Line), Hyōgo occurred due to speeding on 25 April 2005 at 9:18 clock in Amagasaki, .
Starting position
On the Fukuchiyama line is located between the train station and the Tsukaguchi Amagasaki station close curve in which a speed limit of 70 km / h was.
A busy with around 700 passengers express train in the railway company JR Nishi- Nihon (JR West) went here at the Amagasaki station. He had run over the breakpoint at Itami Station, have to reset and thereby retracted a delay of 80 seconds. The 23 -year-old driver tried now - with a very tight schedule designed - to make up for the delay by higher speed.
Course
The train went through the curve, probably to make up for the delay, with 116 km / h speed, 46 km / h over the maximum allowed speed. The first led to the fact that the vehicles touched only with the wheels on the left side, the outer side of the curve, the rails. The driver still led by a rapid deceleration, but in vain. The train derailed. The first two cars of the train plunged into the ground floor of a nearby apartment house.
Follow
107 people on the train were killed, including the driver, 549 were injured. In the multi- family home, no one was injured.
The final report of the commission of inquiry into aviation and train accidents reported to the engineer of the train to the main responsibility, but also criticized for tightly calculated timetables and poor driver training. The Commission called on the JR Nishi- Nihon to improve their driver training and to take increased regard for the safety when creating timetables.
In July 2009 the district prosecutor's office accused the President of Kobe JR Nishi- Nihon, Masao Yamazaki, of negligent homicide ( Kobe Chiho kensatsu -chō ). Yamazaki then declared his retirement, but denied legal responsibility. The trial of Yamazaki began in December 2010. In January 2012, he was acquitted.