Ambulances arrive at the exit of subway line 10 after a train rear-ended another Tuesday afternoon in Shanghai. [Photo/Xinhua]
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Ambulances arrive at the exit of subway line 10 after a train rear-ended another Tuesday afternoon in Shanghai. [Photo/Xinhua] |
Two subway trains collide in Shanghai, over 270 injured A subway train rear-ended another train Tuesday afternoon in Shanghai, injuring more than 270 passengers, including four foreigners.
So far, a total of 271 people have received treatment in hospitals, said Xu Jianguang, director of Shanghai's health bureau, at a press briefing late Tuesday.
Most of the injuries are bruises and bone fractures, but there are also external head traumas, doctors said. An estimated 20 injured people are in critical condition but the injuries are not life-threatening, they said.
Xu said that 180 people have already been discharged from hospital.
The crash occurred at about 2:51 p.m. following a signal system failure at a station on the Line 10 subway, Shanghai Shentong Metro Group Co. said in a statement, adding that about 500 passengers were later evacuated from the trains.
The subway train stopped for about 15 minutes and then continued before stopping again for another ten minutes before crashing into the other train, a young passenger on the train's first carriage said.
The signal system failure at about 2:10 p.m. meant the trains had to be directed via phone by subway staff rather than by electric signals and were thus running at slower speeds, the subway operator's statement said.
The signal system is a product of Casco Signal Ltd., a joint venture of China Railway Signal and Communication Corp. and Alstom, which reportedly supplies signal systems to a number of subways in Chinese cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenzhen.
Casco was blamed for a subway train crash in Shanghai in 2009.
Casco also provided the centralized traffic control system for a railway in east China's Zhejiang Province, where two bullet trains crashed on July 23, killing 40 people and injuring 177.
Jiang Jianhua, Casco's chief engineer, could not be reached for comment. A staff member at Casco's headquarters declined to confirm with Xinhua if the company had launched an investigation into the accident.
The company's website (www.casco.com.cn) could not be opened late Tuesday afternoon.
Tuesday's crash was the result of the third system failure on Line 10 in the last two months.
Yu Guangyao, president of the Shanghai Shentong Metro Group, said Tuesday at the briefing that Casco promised Shentong that it would fix the signal system after a failure guided a train on Line 10 to run in the opposite direction on July 23.
Five days later, another Line 10 train stalled in the tunnel after a control device broke down.
No casualties or injuries were reported in the two previous accidents.