Wenzhou train collision
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The Wenzhou train collision occurred on 23 July 2011 when two
high-speed train High-speed rail (HSR) is a type of rail system that runs significantly faster than traditional rail, using an integrated system of specialised rolling stock and dedicated tracks. While there is no single standard that applies worldwide, lines ...
s travelling on the Yong-Tai-Wen railway line collided on a
viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...
in
Lucheng District Lucheng may refer to the following locations in China: ;Districts *Lucheng District, Changzhi (), Shanxi *Lucheng District, Wenzhou (), Zhejiang ;Subdistricts *Lucheng, Kangding (), seat of Kangding County, Sichuan * Lucheng Subdistrict, Yidu (), ...
,
Wenzhou Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...
,
Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...
province,
People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. The two trains derailed, and four cars fell off the viaduct. 40 people were killed, at least 192 were injured, 12 of which were severe injuries. This disaster was caused by both critical defects in railway signal design and poor management by the railway company. Officials responded to the accident by hastily conducting rescue operations and ordering the burial of the derailed cars. These actions elicited strong criticism from Chinese media and online communities. In response, the government issued directives to restrict media coverage, which was met with limited compliance, even on state-owned networks. The collision is one of the only fatal crashes involving high-speed rail (HSR) in China, and is the third-deadliest HSR accident in history, after the 1998
Eschede train disaster On 3 June 1998, an ICE 1 train derailed and crashed into an overpass that crossed the railroad, which then collapsed onto the train. The crash occurred on the Hannover-Hamburg railway near Eschede in Lower Saxony, Germany. In total, 101 people ...
in Germany and 2013
Santiago de Compostela derailment The Santiago de Compostela derailment occurred on 24 July 2013, when an Alvia high-speed train traveling from Madrid to Ferrol, in the north-west of Spain, derailed at high speed on a bend about outside of the railway station at Santiago de ...
in Spain. High speed was not a factor in the accident, however, since neither train was moving faster than , a moderate speed for a passenger train. The accident, the first of its kind, had a profound impact on the development of
high-speed rail in China The high-speed rail (HSR) network in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is the world's longest and most extensively used – with a total length of by the end of 2021. The HSR network encompasses newly built rail lines with a design speed o ...
. Public confidence in high-speed rail eroded, resulting in fewer passengers using the service. Construction of high-speed rail lines in China was temporarily suspended while the accident was under investigation. Speeds on other major high-speed rail lines in China were reduced. China's reputation in high-speed railway technology was scrutinized internationally. In response to the accident, Railways minister
Sheng Guangzu Sheng Guangzu (; born 5 April 1949) was the last Chinese Minister of Railways before the position was abolished in March 2013, and the first Genenal Manager of China Railway Corporation. He was formerly the head of the General Administration of Cu ...
announced a comprehensive two-month railway safety review. The official investigation completed in December 2011 blamed faulty signal systems which failed to warn the second train of the stationary first train on the same track, as well as a series of management failures on the part of railway officials in carrying out due procedure. The accident and subsequent safety improvements helped implement further safety measures helping prevent any further safety accidents in China's high speed rail network.


Background

The Chinese government has invested billions of dollars in the rapid expansion of its high-speed railway network in recent years, including over RMB¥ 700 billion (US$109 billion) on high speed rail in 2010. China's high speed rail now stretches across more than expanding to by 2012, and is planned to double to about by 2020. The nation's entire rail network carried 1.68 billion rides in 2010 with little cause for alarm. The
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accurately predicted that at this pace, by 2012, mainland China would have had more high-speed railway tracks than the rest of the world put together.


Technology in use


Signalling

Railway signalling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormou ...
systems are designed to prevent any train from entering a stretch of track occupied by another train. But in the Wenzhou collision, Train D301 ran onto the track occupied by Train D3115, indicating a signal failure. The 28 July 2011 announcement, by the Beijing National Railway Research and Design Institute of Signals and Communication, that signal equipment had a design flaw, and that it would "shoulder responsibility" for the accident, confirmed that the accident was a result of signal failure. The signalling technology installed on Chinese high speed lines, including the
Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou railway The Ningbo–Taizhou–Wenzhou railway or Yong-Tai-Wen railway () is a dual-track, electrified, high-speed rail line in Zhejiang Province, China. It is named after the three prefecture-level cities along route: Ningbo, whose abbreviated Chinese ...
where the accident occurred, is
Chinese Train Control System The Chinese Train Control System (CTCS, ''simpl.chinese:'' 中国列车控制系统) is a train control system used on railway lines in People's Republic of China. CTCS is similar to the European Train Control System (ETCS). It has two subsystems ...
CTCS-2 which is the Chinese version of
European Train Control System The European Train Control System (ETCS) is the signalling and control component of the European Rail Traffic Management System (ERTMS). It is a replacement for legacy train protection systems and designed to replace the many incompatible s ...
Level 1. The CTCS-2 system uses the classical technology of
track circuit A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters. Principles and operation The basic principle behind t ...
s to detect the presence of a train on a piece of track. In addition, CTCS-2 uses both fixed-data
balise A balise is an electronic beacon or transponder placed between the rails of a railway as part of an automatic train protection (ATP) system. The French word ''balise'' is used to distinguish these beacons from other kinds of beacons. Balises a ...
s (track-mounted transponders) and controllable-data
balise A balise is an electronic beacon or transponder placed between the rails of a railway as part of an automatic train protection (ATP) system. The French word ''balise'' is used to distinguish these beacons from other kinds of beacons. Balises a ...
s controlled by a Lineside Electronic Unit (LEU) to transmit essential information and signal instructions from the Train Control Center to trains. Information and signal instructions are transmitted by the balises as "telegrams", which are picked up by a
balise transmission module A balise is an electronic beacon or transponder placed between the rails of a railway as part of an automatic train protection (ATP) system. The French word ''balise'' is used to distinguish these beacons from other kinds of beacons. Balises a ...
mounted under the head of the train, and sent to an on-board "vital computer" for decoding. Using the data it has received, the computer calculates a "speed control curve" showing the maximum speed the train can maintain while allowing sufficient braking distance before any danger. The information is displayed to the train driver on a monitor. Should the driver disregard this information by overspeeding, or enter a danger zone, the Vital Computer can make an automatic brake application. As of 31 July 2011, Chinese authorities had failed to provide any logical explanation of why the safeguards built into the CTCS-2 signal technology had failed to work in the Wenzhou collision. Various announcements indicated both defects in equipment (lightning strikes had disabled devices) and defects in operating procedures (staff operated signals in "manual mode"). An Lusheng, the chief of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, was quoted as saying that a device had "failed to turn from green to red". But CTCS-2 equipped trains do not rely on drivers observing green or red wayside signals, the driver has a computer-controlled monitor in front of him. Early announcements spoke of Train D3115 being stopped by a lightning strike, but that would not cause the accident. The second train D301 should not have been allowed to run into it. Whether Train D3115 was stopped by lightning or for any other reason is irrelevant. The fuzzy and confused official announcements up to 31 July gave increasing hints that a lightning strike caused some wayside-mounted piece of signal equipment to malfunction (the official investigation report in December 2011 identified a trackside LKD2-T1 signal assembly which malfunctioned after being struck by lightning, causing a false indication in the control center that a section of track was unoccupied). If the equipment was not
fail-safe In engineering, a fail-safe is a design feature or practice that in the event of a specific type of failure, inherently responds in a way that will cause minimal or no harm to other equipment, to the environment or to people. Unlike inherent safe ...
, an incorrect response by staff could then cause an accident. Significantly, on 28 July 2011, An Lusheng "faulted the quality of equipment, personnel and on-site controls. He described safeguards as 'still quite weak'." On 4 August 2011 a high-ranking work safety official ruled out the possibility of natural disaster having caused the train crash. "Now I can say for sure that this is not a natural disaster," Huang Yi, the spokesman and a leading official with the State Administration of Work Safety, said during an on-line chat hosted by people.com.cn, the online arm of ''
People's Daily The ''People's Daily'' () is the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The newspaper provides direct information on the policies and viewpoints of the CCP. In addition to its main Chinese-language ...
''. He added that the railway authorities had also pointed out loopholes and deficiencies in safety management, which had emerged in the accident. The official investigation, completed in December 2011, blamed faulty signal systems which had failed to warn the second train of the stationary first train on the same track, as well as a series of management failures on the part of railway officials in carrying out due procedure.


Rolling stock

The two trains involved were based on technology from Bombardier and Kawasaki. Train
CRH1 The CRH1 EMU, also known as Hexie (simplified Chinese: 和谐号; traditional Chinese: 和諧號; pinyin: Héxié Hào; literally: "Harmony") is a high-speed train operated by China Railway and built by a joint venture between Bombardier Transpo ...
-046B is a variant of the Swedish
Bombardier Regina The Regina is a Swedish model of electric multiple unit passenger train, manufactured by Bombardier Transportation (formerly Adtranz). It is used by the national passenger railway SJ along with numerous regional and private operators, in varian ...
, while the second train
CRH2 The CRH2 Hexie (simplified Chinese: 和谐号; traditional Chinese: 和諧號; pinyin: Héxié Hào; literally: "Harmony") is one of the high-speed train models in China. The CRH2 is based on the E2-1000 Series Shinkansen design from Japan wit ...
-139E is a derivative of the Japanese
E2 Series Shinkansen The is a Japanese high-speed Shinkansen train type operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) on the Tohoku Shinkansen high-speed lines in Japan since 1997. They are formed in 8- and 10-car sets. The 8-car sets were used on the Hokuriku ...
'bullet train.' The Chinese maker has been attempting to patent the same technology and alleged improvements. The trains were of the "D train" class and thus in the first generation of China's express trains, not the faster "G train" class, which travel at more than .


Accident chronology

On 23 July, at roughly 20:00 CST,
CRH CRH may refer to: * Calibre radius head, a traditional British ordnance term for a concept in ballistic projectile design * Celtic Resources Holdings, an Irish mining company * China Railway High-speed, a high-speed railway service operated by Chin ...
train D3115 (
CRH1 The CRH1 EMU, also known as Hexie (simplified Chinese: 和谐号; traditional Chinese: 和諧號; pinyin: Héxié Hào; literally: "Harmony") is a high-speed train operated by China Railway and built by a joint venture between Bombardier Transpo ...
-046B), carrying 1,072 people and travelling from
Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whi ...
to Fuzhou South came to a halt over a
viaduct A viaduct is a specific type of bridge that consists of a series of arches, piers or columns supporting a long elevated railway or road. Typically a viaduct connects two points of roughly equal elevation, allowing direct overpass across a wide v ...
near the Ou River. Shortly after,
CRH CRH may refer to: * Calibre radius head, a traditional British ordnance term for a concept in ballistic projectile design * Celtic Resources Holdings, an Irish mining company * China Railway High-speed, a high-speed railway service operated by Chin ...
train D301 (
CRH2 The CRH2 Hexie (simplified Chinese: 和谐号; traditional Chinese: 和諧號; pinyin: Héxié Hào; literally: "Harmony") is one of the high-speed train models in China. The CRH2 is based on the E2-1000 Series Shinkansen design from Japan wit ...
-139E), carrying 558 people and running from Beijing South to
Fuzhou Fuzhou (; , Fuzhounese: Hokchew, ''Hók-ciŭ''), alternately romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute t ...
, crashed into the rear-end of the stationary D3115. The cause of the crash was initially said to be a lightning strike on one of the line's overhead power lines due to a lightning storm occurring south and west of the viaduct. Lightning reportedly struck the first train, which caused it to stop on the tracks. However, five days after the incident, the Beijing National Railway Research & Design Institute of Signals and Communications Co. Ltd., a railway research institute, claimed responsibility, stating in a report that a
signal In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...
on the track failed to turn red, and staff failed to notice the error. A much more detailed description of what happened in the accident, correcting earlier accounts, was published in the December 2011 report of the official investigation. The first train D3115 was stopped not by losing power as a result of the lightning strike, but was stopped by the signal system, the
Automatic Train Protection Automatic train protection (ATP) is a type of train protection system which continually checks that the speed of a train is compatible with the permitted speed allowed by signalling, including automatic stop at certain signal aspects. If it is ...
(ATP). The lightning had struck a trackside LKD2-T1 signal assembly, burning out its fuses, and violating the rule that it should be 'fail-safe'. This had caused an incorrect indication in the control center that the track section containing train D3115 was unoccupied (the so-called 'green signal'). The driver He Li of train D3115 worked to override the ATP and, after more than seven minutes of waiting, at 8.29 p.m. he got the train moving again, overriding the ATP. As train D3115 entered the next section of track, where the
track circuit A track circuit is an electrical device used to prove the absence of a train on rail tracks to signallers and control relevant signals. An alternative to track circuits are axle counters. Principles and operation The basic principle behind t ...
s that indicate the presence of the train were working correctly, the control center now saw that the track section was occupied. But driver Pan Yiheng of the following train D301 had already been given instructions to proceed onto the section of track where D3115 had been stopped, when the control center had a false indication that the track was unoccupied. Despite a message from the control center that D301 should proceed with caution, less than half a minute later train D301 running at collided with train D3115. The fifteenth and sixteenth coaches at the rear of D3115 and the front four coaches of D301 were derailed – four coaches fell off the viaduct. Three carriages came to rest horizontally on the ground below while the fourth came to rest vertically, one end on the ground and one end leaning against the viaduct. Soon after the accident, the damaged railway carriages were seen being broken apart by
backhoe A backhoe—also called rear actor or back actor—is a type of excavating equipment, or digger, consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. It is typically mounted on the back of a tractor or front loader, the latt ...
s and buried nearby. The medical teams responding to the accident consisted of staff from Zhejiang No. 1 Hospital, Zhejiang No. 2 Hospital, Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital and Taizhou Hospital. The evening of the event, 500
Wenzhou Wenzhou (pronounced ; Wenzhounese: Yuziou y33–11 tɕiɤu33–32 ), historically known as Wenchow is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Zhejiang province in the People's Republic of China. Wenzhou is located at the extreme south east o ...
residents gave blood in response to early radio appeals by the local
blood bank A blood bank is a center where blood gathered as a result of blood donation is stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusion. The term "blood bank" typically refers to a department of a hospital usually within a Clinical Pathology laborat ...
. A survivor, Liu Hongtaohe, recalled that "the train suddenly shook violently, casting luggage all around. Passengers cried for help but no crew responded" in an interview with
China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...
. CCTV reported on 25 July that the Railways Ministry had declared that 39 people were killed and 192 injured. Two-year-old Xiang Weiyi was the last person rescued, 21 hours after the train crash. Her parents had been killed in the crash. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said on 25 July that two U.S. citizens were among the dead. The Italian consulate of Shanghai said that an Italian citizen was among the dead: Assunta Liguori, a 22-year-old student of the Università degli studi di Napoli L'Orientale. Liguori was travelling with Giovanni Pan, a 23-year-old student from L'Orientale, of Chinese origin.


Government response

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
general secretary Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...
Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...
and
Premier of the State Council The premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, commonly called the premier of China and sometimes also referred to as the prime minister, is the head of government of China and leader of the State Council. The premier is ...
Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao (born 15 September 1942) is a retired Chinese politician who served as the Premier of the State Council from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic policy ...
called for "all-out efforts to rescue passengers". Train operations were suspended on the line while damaged infrastructure was repaired. Fifty-eight trains were canceled the following day.
Sheng Guangzu Sheng Guangzu (; born 5 April 1949) was the last Chinese Minister of Railways before the position was abolished in March 2013, and the first Genenal Manager of China Railway Corporation. He was formerly the head of the General Administration of Cu ...
, the Railways Minister, ordered an investigation into the accident, and arrived at the scene of the accident on midday 24 July. He also apologised for the horrific accident. Vice-Premier
Zhang Dejiang Zhang Dejiang (; born 4 November 1946) is a Chinese retired politician. He served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress, roughly the equivalent of a speaker of parliament in other countries between ...
flew into Wenzhou to lead rescue efforts. The Ministry of Railways announced that three high-ranking railway officials were fired immediately after the crash. They were identified as Long Jing, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau; Li Jia, party secretary and the deputy chief of the bureau, He Shengli. The Chinese government had sacked railways minister
Liu Zhijun / ( or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'kill', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic text ...
in February 2011, for allegedly taking over 800 million yuan in kickbacks connected with contracts for high-speed rail expansion.
Zhang Shuguang Zhang Shuguang (; 1920 – 20 November 2002), born Han Zhihong (), also known as Han Jianxun (), was a politician of the People's Republic of China. He was the Communist Party Chief of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from 1986 to 1987, and the ...
, the deputy chief engineer of China's railways, was also arrested in February 2011 and alleged to have amassed $2.8 billion in overseas accounts. The government ordered a two-month nationwide safety campaign on 26 July, as the families of victims demanded more answers. Sheng Guangzu apologised for the collision on behalf of the Railways department and said the campaign would focus on improving China's high-speed network. Government officials had not explained by 25 July why the second train was apparently not warned of the disabled one before the crash took place. Lawyers in China were ordered by the Wenzhou Judicial Bureau not to take on cases from the families of the crash victims. According to a statement issued by the Wenzhou Lawyers' Association, lawyers were told not to take cases because "the accident is a major sensitive issue concerning social stability". The Wenzhou Judicial Bureau later apologized for the statement, saying its wording had been formulated by the Lawyers' Association and had not been approved. The Wenzhou train collision had an immediate and major effect on China's high-speed rail program. The Chinese government formed a commission to investigate the accident with a directive to report its findings in September 2011. On 10 August 2011 the Chinese government announced that it was suspending approvals of any new high-speed rail lines pending the outcome of the investigation. The Minister of Railways announced further cuts in the speed of Chinese high-speed trains, with the speed of the second-tier 'D' trains reduced from . The speed of the remaining trains between Shanghai and Hangzhou was reduced to as of 28 August 2011. To stimulate ridership, which had suffered due to concerns about safety, on 16 August 2011 ticket prices on Chinese high-speed trains were reduced by 5 percent. The train crash sparked public anger on the safety of high speed trains in China and on the handling of the accident, even in otherwise tightly controlled Chinese media. Quality and safety concerns will likely have a serious impact on China's ambition to export cheap high speed train technology to other countries. In November 2011, the state-controlled ''The Beijing News'' reported that an investigation by the Chinese government into the collision has concluded that "poor management of the local railway administration" was to blame. The final report, which was released after a delay in December, found 54 officials responsible along with flaws in the design of the local control centre and some onboard components.


Official media directives

The Chinese authorities have been accused of attempting to silence reports into the cause of the crash. The
Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
's propaganda department has reportedly ordered the media not to send reporters to the scene, not to report too frequently and not to link the story to high-speed rail development.
Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre. Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...
reported that the propaganda department issued directives to the nation's media instructing them to not question or elaborate on reports of the train crash. In their coverage, media were directed to promote the theme 'in the face of great tragedy, there's great love.'
Xinhuanet Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: )J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English, or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. Xinhua ...
released a number of state-sponsored, touching stories as Propaganda Department's indication, such as "Love in this sublimation," "a city of love and warm" and comments. Still, according to the
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, several Chinese newspapers published editorials criticising the railway ministry, and the state-run ''Global Times'' had an unusually scathing editorial. On Friday, 29 July a second directive was issued banning all coverage of the story 'except positive news or that issued by the authorities'; the sudden ban forced newspapers to scrap seven-day anniversary stories they had prepared. The ''China Business Journal'' scrapped eight pages, ''21st Century Business Herald'' twelve pages and ''The Beijing News'' nine pages. The state-run Xinhua newswire was forced to warn subscribers not to use an investigative report it had issued. The ban was flouted by Beijing-based weekly ''
The Economic Observer ''The Economic Observer'' () is an independent, weekly simplified-character Chinese newspaper published in the People's Republic of China since April 2001. The newspaper is considered to be one of the top three economic-focused newspapers in Chin ...
'', which published an eight-page feature on 30 July, with a front-page letter pledging to pursue the truth on behalf of Xiang Weiyi, the 2-year-old survivor who was orphaned in the crash.


Investigation

On 28 December 2011 the official accident investigation report presented to the
State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...
was released to the public. According to this report, the accident occurred due to severe defects in the design of control center equipment, lax equipment inspection and failure to adequately respond to equipment malfunction caused by lightning. The report names 54 officials as bearing responsibility for the accident and the botched rescue effort. The most senior official implicated in the report is former minister
Liu Zhijun / ( or ) is an East Asian surname. pinyin: in Mandarin Chinese, in Cantonese. It is the family name of the Han dynasty emperors. The character originally meant 'kill', but is now used only as a surname. It is listed 252nd in the classic text ...
, who had been detained on corruption charges before the accident, but nonetheless is accused of improperly raising the operating speed of the Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou Railway and compressing the construction schedule of the railway, which resulted in curtailed safety inspection of the line. He is also blamed for failing to assign proper duties to a newly created office within the MOR to oversee passenger-dedicated high-speed railway lines, failing to resolve bureaucratic overlap in the oversight of HSR safety within the Ministry that weakened regulatory oversight, and failing to direct subordinates to institute proper review and inspection procedures for newly developed signaling equipment, which led the defective LKD2-T1 signal equipment to be put into operation. Other senior MOR officials cited include deputy minister Lu Dongfu, MOR chief engineer He Huawu and former MOR deputy chief engineer
Zhang Shuguang Zhang Shuguang (; 1920 – 20 November 2002), born Han Zhihong (), also known as Han Jianxun (), was a politician of the People's Republic of China. He was the Communist Party Chief of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region from 1986 to 1987, and the ...
. The report also assigns fault to executives and engineers of the China Railway Signal & Communications Corp., which designed, produced and installed the defective equipment, executives of the Jingfu Railway (Anhui) Corporation, which permitted the faulty equipment to be installed improperly in breach of the contractual terms. Numerous officials of the
Shanghai Railway Bureau China Railway Shanghai Group, officially abbreviated as CR Shanghai or CR-Shanghai, formerly, Shanghai Railway Administration is a subsidiaries company under the jurisdiction of the China Railway (formerly the Ministry of Railways). As of 2007, t ...
, which operates the line, are also singled out for blame including former bureau chief Long Jing, who was fired shortly after the accident, as well as deputy bureau chief, Wang Feng, who ordered that wrecked train carriages be buried in pits dug on-site. The chief and deputy chief of Wenzhou South Station are faulted for inadequate oversight of employees. Among the most junior persons cited is Zang Kai, a worker at Wenzhou South Station who discovered signal failure on the D3212 Train but, in breach of protocol, failed to file a log report of the malfunction and did not communicate with the D301 Train.


Reaction


Wang Yongping's press conference

On orders from the authorities, the rescue effort concluded less than a day following the accident, and the damaged train cars were seen being broken apart by
backhoe A backhoe—also called rear actor or back actor—is a type of excavating equipment, or digger, consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. It is typically mounted on the back of a tractor or front loader, the latt ...
s and buried nearby. The Railway Ministry justified the burial by claiming that the trains contained valuable "national level" technology that could be stolen. However, hours after the rescuers had been told to stop searching for survivors, a 2-year-old girl was found alive in the wreckage. Chinese media was especially skeptical of the rescue efforts, particularly the burial of trains. In a press conference, the spokesman of the Railway Ministry, Wang Yongping, said that the burial was for facilitating the rescue work. The answer prompted heckling and gasps of disbelief from the journalists assembled. Wang then said to a journalist, "whether or not you believe his explanation I believe it." (".") This phrase eventually became an
internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
. When asked why a little girl was found after the rescue work had been announced finished, Wang said, "This was a miracle. We did find a living girl in the work thereafter. That was what happened." (".") There was no evidence that experts or officials entered the front car to investigate the cause of the accident when it was buried. Families of the victims of the crash were outraged at what they viewed was an inadequate investigation, as well as poor organisation and relief in the aftermath of the disaster. Images of the wreckage being shovelled into the pits were circulated widely on the Internet, and led to speculation over a possible mishandling by the government or concealing evidence crucial for the ongoing investigation.


Chinese media

Despite reported directives from the Publicity Department, Chinese media, both independent and state-owned, directly criticized the Ministry of Railways and voiced their skepticism of the government. Such challenges to officially sanctioned orthodoxy were bold and rare, particularly on programs aired on China's state-owned television. In one instance, in response to Wang Yongping's assurance at the press conference that the Chinese railway system was running on "advanced technology", news anchor
Bai Yansong Bai Yansong () (born August 20, 1968) is a Chinese news commentator, anchor and journalist for China Central Television (CCTV). He has become one of the most recognizable figures in China, serving as the lead anchor on stories such as the Sydney O ...
retorted on
China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...
, "The technology may be advanced, but is your management advanced? Are your standard operating procedures advanced? Is the supervision advanced? Is your respect for people advanced? Are all the minute details advanced? At the end of the day, is your overall operational capability advanced?" Similarly, Qiu Qiming of CCTV program ''24-Hours'' launched into an on-air tirade about Chinese society: "If nobody can be safe, do we still want this speed? Can we drink a glass of milk that's safe? Can we stay in an apartment that will not fall apart? Can the roads we travel on in our cities not collapse? Can we travel in safe trains? And if and when a major accident does happen, can we not be in a hurry to bury the trains? Can we afford the people a basic sense of security? China, please slow down. If you're too fast, you may leave the souls of your people behind." Qi Qixin, a professor at the Transportation Research Institute of
Beijing University of Technology Beijing University of Technology (), also called Beijing Polytechnic University or Bei Gong Da (), is recognized as one of the Project 211 universities. The university has established a multidisciplinary academic structure, offering a variety ...
, remarked that "the problem may have come from the mistakes of dispatching management, instead of technological failure," and "The system should have an ability to automatically issue a warning or even stop a train under such circumstances," in a press release. Ren Xianfang, senior analyst at IHS Global Insight in Beijing, said that the pace of development in China had been "phenomenal", but warned it could not be sustained in the long run. The driver of the crashed train, Pan Yiheng, was hailed as a hero in some quarters on 26 July, for preventing the disaster from becoming worse. He tried to brake the train to keep it from crashing into the rear of the train ahead; he was killed when the brake handle pierced his chest in the crash. It has been stated that had he not acted, at least one more train car would have been derailed, likely increasing the death toll.


Online communities

Internet users were skeptical that the crash was caused by a natural disaster, instead blaming officials, with one frequently forwarded comment on
Sina Weibo Sina Weibo (新浪微博) is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily acti ...
microblog Microblogging is a form of social network that permits only short posts. They "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links",. Retrieved June 5, 2014 which may be the major reason for ...
ging service stating "When a country is so corrupt that one lightning strike can cause a train crash ... none of us are exempt. China today is a train rushing through a lightning storm ... we are all passengers". MOR Spokesman Wang Yongping gained particular notoriety online, with netizens parodying his various statements and attacking his credibility and character. Numerous cartoons, and even a music video ridiculing him, appeared. On 16 August, he was dismissed from the Ministry of Railways, ostensibly because of his botched handling of the press conference. Wang endured severe stress throughout the negative publicity online, and he was eventually transferred to a position at the Organization for Cooperation of Railways in Poland on 18 August. In reaction, a web post commented sarcastically "Quick! Sell all your Polish high-speed rail stocks!" Some commentators defended Wang, saying he was merely a scapegoat in a corrupt system. Netizen activity about the crash was also examined.


Stock markets

Shares in CSR Corp., which built one of the two trains in a joint venture with Canada's Bombardier Inc, fell by 14%, while China Automation Group Ltd., which was responsible for the design and production of the safety and control systems for railways, saw its shares fall by 19% in
Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
on 24 and 25 July. China Rail Construction, builder of more than half of the nation's rail links since 1949, fell 6.7%. Shares in
China Railway Group China Railway Group Limited known as CREC (the acronym of its predecessor and parent company China Railway Engineering Corporation) is a Chinese construction company which floats in Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges. The major shareholder o ...
also temporarily slid down 7.7%. The high-speed rail woes added to negative market sentiment from the US debt deadlock, sending the Shanghai Composite Index down 3 per cent to 2,688.75. CNR shares fell 9.7%.


Overseas

An official at
Saudi Railways Organization The Saudi Railways Organization (SRO) ( ar, المؤسسة العامة للخطوط الحديدية) is one of two state-owned companies that operates Saudi Arabia's rail network along with Saudi Railway Company. The SRO operates a network of ra ...
, the kingdom's train network operator, declined to comment on the Chinese crash or whether it might affect the company's decision to award a part of a 2009 $1.8 billion rail contract to a Chinese company. Edwin Merner, the president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in
Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...
, reckoned the crash would cause a temporary loss of trust in Chinese railway technology. The crash drew sharp contrasts between China and Japan, with both Chinese online commentators and international publications pointing out that Japan has never experienced a crash on its high-speed rail lines, despite being in operation for over forty years. Many Japanese experts zoomed in on the accident, which was headlined on the front page in almost all major Japanese newspapers the morning after it occurred. In an editorial titled "Chinese government must stop cover-ups, trivializing life", the ''
Daily Yomiuri The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...
'' called for the national overhaul of signaling systems and lauded the role of social media. ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' editorialized strongly against the Chinese government, asserting that the accident has "shown the limits of dictatorship." At ''
Miller-McCune ''Pacific Standard'' was an American online magazine that reported on issues of social and environmental justice. Founded in 2008, the magazine was published in print and online for its first ten years until production of the print edition cease ...
'', Shank and Wasserstrom opined that the crash marks a serious "legitimacy crisis" for the Chinese government and could mark the end of a "confident era." David Bandurski wrote in the ''
International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France for international English-speaking readers. It had the aim of becoming "the world's first global newspaper" and could fairly be said ...
'' that the accident and its response was "emblematic of a callous, unresponsive political culture that prioritizes instant results over public well-being and accountability." Bandurski called China's high-speed rail development an unsustainable venture mired by political intrigue, corruption, and a '
Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruc ...
'-style mentality. Conversely, Robert Zeliger of ''
Foreign Policy A State (polity), state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterall ...
'' drew comparisons between China's railway safety record and those of India and the United States. Citing journalist Lloyd Lofthouse, Zeliger points out that between 2007 and the time of the Wenzhou crash, 20% of the 177 accidents during this period actually occurred in the United States, 15% in India, and only 4% in China. He highlighted the much higher death toll of accidents on India's railways. Meanwhile, the ''
Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Lyall ...
'', while criticizing the Chinese government's response, recognized the need for India to "learn from" China's accident and apply further scrutiny to its own rail networks.


Aftermath

, the crash has remained the only serious accident on the Chinese high-speed rail network, which now accounts for two-thirds of the world's total high-speed railways, carries over 2 billion passengers every year and still is undergoing large scale expansion.


See also

*
List of rail accidents (2010–present) This is the list of rail accident lists. Lists By year By type *By country * By death toll *Terrorist incidents See also * Classification of railway accidents * Derailment *Rail Transport * Train wreck * Tram accident * Train-pedestrian fata ...
Modelling of the accident has been published


Notes


References


External links


“7·23”甬温线特别重大铁路交通事故调查报告
- State Administration of Work Safety (China) * ''Wall Street Journal'
graphic
of the events an
article
- 3 October 2011 {{Authority control Railway accidents in 2011 Railway accidents and incidents in China Transport in Wenzhou 2011 disasters in China High-speed rail in China History of Zhejiang July 2011 events in China Political scandals in China