Taiwan's president has pressed for a quick, transparent probe into the cause of the island's worst train crash in nearly three decades as the search of the derailed cars ended and crash investigators examined the wreckage.
The eight-car Puyuma express ran off the tracks on Monday as it went around a bend where the maximum speed is 75km/h. Video footage obtained by local media showed the train striking and toppling a beam and ripping down metal structures from above the tracks as it crashed.
Eighteen people were killed and 187 injured in the crash that left most of the cars damaged and five overturned in a zig-zag pattern around the tracks. Rescuers searched through the night for more victims before work crews moved the derailed cars upright to assist the investigation.
"Everyone cares a lot about the cause of the accident," Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said in a statement from her office. "Therefore we request that the investigating departments must as soon as possible make clear the timing and situation of the whole accident from start to finish and be able to give citizens a report."
That report may take more than a day as investigators do interviews and check records, a Taiwan Railways Administration spokesman said on customary condition of anonymity. The speed of the train was not being released due to the pending investigation, but has not been ruled out as a cause.
The Taiwan Railways Administration said it has not released any official video pending the investigation.
Survivors told Taiwan's official Central News Agency the driver applied emergency brakes multiple times before the train derailed. One told local television reporters the train sped up after taking the curve.
Crash investigators checked inside and underneath the now-upright cars for evidence. The Yilan County prosecutor also surveyed the wreckage as her office talked to witnesses.
The 6-year-old trains were built to travel at an especially fast 150 kph to ease transportation on rugged parts of the island. They are designed to tilt when going around curves.
The train that derailed had its most recent inspection and major maintenance work in 2017, Taiwan Railways Director Lu Chie-shen said.
Five people killed including a nine-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl belonged to a single family. Three students and two teachers who died were from the same primary school.
Some passengers were crushed to death. Of the total injured, seven were still receiving intensive hospital care on Monday. No one had life-threatening injuries.
The train had been carrying more than 360 passengers on a popular weekend route from a suburb of Taipei in the north to Taitung, a city on Taiwan's southeast coast.
Railway service was partly restored on Monday.
Australian Associated Press
