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By APD writer Alice
An express train on September 5collided with a truck in Yokohama near Tokyo in Japan, sparking a blaze and killing the truck's driver and injuring 33 others, according to Kyodo News.
The train, which usually travels at 120 kilometers per hour in the area, crashed into the 13-ton truck at a crossing on the Keikyu Line around 11:40 a.m., causing the first three carriages of the eight-car passenger train to derail. The truck caught fire.
Although the train driver applied the emergency brake before the crash, the truck was dragged 60 to 70 meters upon impact, according to the police and train operator Keikyu Corp.
MichioMotohashi, the 67-year-old truck driver, died in the accident, while the train driver, the conductor and 31 passengers aboard the train from Aoto in Tokyo to Misakiguchi in Kanagawa prefecture sustained light injuries, according to the police.
The truck, 12 meters long and 2.5 meters wide, is suspected to have got stranded on the crossing while trying to turn right from a narrow side road along the tracks, the police said.
A transport firm in Katori, Chiba prefecture, said it believes the truck was from its fleet and the driver was carrying fruit from Yokohama to Narita, east of Tokyo.
"I thought I would die," said a 23-year-old man who managed to escape through a window of the train's first carriage. He said he heard another man yell "watch out" before the impact.
A plume of black smoke could be seen rising into the air after the accident and the first car of the train was lifted off the tracks.
The Japanese government set up a liaison office at the prime minister's office to oversee the response to the accident, while the Japan Transport Safety Board dispatched railway accident investigators to the site.
Keikyu said it would attempt to resume train service by the September 6 evening rush period in areas affected by the accident.
The Keikyu Line runs through Tokyo and neighboring Kanagawa Prefecture, and part of its service takes passengers to and from Haneda airport.
Originally founded in 1898, the private railway company was established as Keikyu Corp. in 1948. The firm also operates bus companies and hotels.
In September 2012, a Keikyu express train ran into a mudslide in Yokosuka and derailed, leaving more than 50 people injured. Another train operated by the company was also involved in a mudslide-related derailment in April 1997, injuring 19.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
