Six Years On From the Yilan Train Crash, Families Still Have Questions

TaiwanPlus News

On the sixth anniversary of a train derailment that killed 18 people and injured more than 200, activists call for more government transparency. Taiwan's east coast has seen multiple train crashes in recent years, including the 2021 Hualien crash that killed 49 people, the deadliest rail accident in Taiwan's history.

Transcript

00:00It's been six years since a train traveling at more than 130 kilometers per hour derailed in Yilan County in eastern Taiwan

00:08Killing 18 people and injuring more than 200. It was one of the worst rail disasters in the country's history

00:14on the anniversary of the crash

00:16Some family members of those killed and injured gathered to mark the date and raise concerns about the rail authority

00:23previously known as the TRA

00:26We think Taiwan government lied to everyone and we we need the TRA

00:32to say the truth

00:35to Taiwan people

00:37Responsibility for the accident fell on the driver

00:40He received a prison sentence of more than four years for his decision to turn off a speed control system known as automatic train protection

00:48Earlier this month

00:49He was also found liable to pay half the money owed by the state-owned Taiwan Railway to one of the injured passengers

00:56But the group of victims families says that the speed and timing of the accident in the official government report

01:02Doesn't match with the video of the crash something for which they want an explanation

01:07The crash is just one of several train accidents in Taiwan's East Coast in recent years

01:12Some of them deadly in

01:142021 a truck that fell onto the tracks derailed a train that killed at least 49 people and

01:21Earlier this year landslides caused a partial train derailment in which at least nine people were injured

01:27The government says it has made efforts to improve train safety in light of recent disasters such as strengthening monitoring and

01:35automated safety systems and this year the rail authority changed from a government agency to a state-owned company

01:42Which is aimed at improving management and services?

01:45I'm tight. It be she bought a good joshin

01:48Don't do it. Man. I can't get the girl that you could don't leave. Oh, I don't move

01:52Oh, man, wait, it's a cheney. Do you hide it? I'm trying Geiger yet

01:57Despite these efforts natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons have continued to cause track closures on the East Coast

02:05The country now moves forward hoping that these reforms will be enough to avert the next disaster

02:11Joseph Wu and Chris Gorin for Taiwan plus

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