Investigations into Japan’s worst train crash in 40 years are in full swing and investigators are hoping to zero in on why the train skidded off the tracks.
According to the latest figures around 78 people were killed in the commuter train crash and over 440 people were injured. Investigators raided offices of Japan Rail West, seized relevant documents and have reportedly questioned a conductor who was guiding the inexperienced train driver. The driver has not yet been found.
Shimoda, a Transportation Ministry inspector said that investigators had hoped to recover a recorder with data on the train's speed and other details at the time of the accident. Such data will give a clear picture of what actually happened. Government investigators have now succeeded in recovering this ‘black box’ and are in the process of examining the data. Yasuo Sato, a government investigator said, “We will have to comprehensively examine this data.”
The focus apparently is on the speed of the train and also the inexperienced driver, Ryujiro Takami, who was a new employee. He was 23 years old and had 11 months of prior experience.
Survivors in the train accident have blamed the speed of the train as it rounded off a curve as the cause of the crash.
Several people have said that there were some stones on the tracks, which could have caused the accident, "We hear there was a stone on the rail. We hear the train was speeding. There is also speculation that the construction of the train itself may have been faulty. There could be many reasons." an investigator said. He added that overspeeding could be one possible cause, "but there should also have been a system to stop or slow the train down" he said.
The train derailed near Amagasaki, an Osaka suburb about 300 miles southwest of Tokyo, and was carrying 580 passengers.
