A gale warning system is being developed to protect all train
passengers, after a recent derailment left three people dead in
western China.
The Ministry of Railways commissioned the warning system in
response to the freak accident in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region last
Wednesday, which left more than 30 passengers injured.
If successful, the system will be used across the country.
Currently only the Qinghai-Tibet Railway is equipped with a strong
wind warning system, said Lu Zhizhong, an expert with the
High-speed Railway Research Center.
The Qinghai-Tibet Railway's system involves a research center
run by the Central South University in Changsha, Hunan Province, which gathers weather information
for statistical analysis before sending warnings to train drivers
according to their locations.
"In the case of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, we send out warnings
if the wind speed reaches more than 18 meters per second," said
Lu.
So far, the center has sent at least 50,000 warnings, and the
Qinghai-Tibet Railway has not experienced any accidents caused by
strong winds.
However, for most railways, the local meteorological stations
send the latest weather information to train dispatchers who then
must use their own discretion to decide whether a train should
run.
In areas with strong year-round winds, some special steps have
been taken to ensure safety, such as installing wind-measuring
facilities along railways in Xinjiang, which automatically collect
wind data every three seconds and send it to train dispatchers.
But in general, China needs to improve the railways' strong wind
warning system, say experts.
Lu said research into the effect strong winds can have on trains
is behind where it should be, because trains running faster than
160 kilometers an hour, which are particularly prone to high winds,
were only introduced to China in recent years.
Last Wednesday, 11 of the 19 cars of a passenger train on its
way from Urumqi to Aksu in Xinjiang were knocked off the rails by
the sudden gust of a 13 gale force wind.
The families of the three passengers who died in the derailment
will each receive 200,000 yuan (US$25,800) in compensation from the
Railways Ministry, the Beijing News reported, quoting a
relative of victim Shi Lei.
The ministry yesterday refused to confirm the amount. According
to railway compensation rules, each passenger, whether dead or
injured, is entitled to no more than 40,000 yuan (US$5,170) in
compensation.
(China Daily March 6, 2007)