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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 26, 2005)
| Global update | Death toll climbs to 71 in Japan train crash BY MAR] YAMAGUCHI THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AMAGASAKI, Japan — The death toll rose to 71 on Tliesday as crews pulled more victims from the wreckage of Japan’s deadliest rail crash in decades. Investigators focused on whether excessive speed or the driver’s inexperience caused the train to derail and slam into a building. The seven-car commuter train carrying 580 passengers derailed Monday morning near Amagasaki, a suburb of Osaka about 250 miles west of Tokyo. It hit an automobile and then a nine-story apartment complex. More than 440 people were injured. Crews pulled 14 more bodies from the twisted rail carriages, pushing the death toll from 57 to 71 Two of the five derailed cars were shoved inside and flattened against the wall of the building’s first-floor parking garage. Relatives rushed to hospitals looking for loved ones who might have been injured or killed in the r 5:18 a.m. crash. “I only saw him the night before,” said Hiroko Kuki, whose son died in the crash. “I wish he were alive somewhere ... I wish it were only a nightmare. ” Takamichi Hayashi said his elder brother, 19-year-old Hiroki, might be among those still in the wreck. He said Hiroki license in May. A month later, he overshot a station and was issued a warning, railway officials and police said. Passengers said he also stopped too far past a station plat form Monday just before the crash. Tsunemi Murakami, safety direc tor for West Japan Railway Co., said it had not been determined how fast the train had called their mother twice on a mobile phone from in side one of the train cars hours after the crash but remained “For the train to flip, it had to be traveling at an extremely high speed. ” Kazuhiko Nagase | TVain expert was trav eling. A sur v i v i n g crew member told police he “felt unaccounted for. “He told my mother: ‘I’m in pain. I’m not going to make it,”’ Hayashi said. Officials said no cause had been ruled out but added that investiga tors suspect speed and the driver’s lack of experience on the job. The driver, Ryujiro Takami, 23, ] was unaccounted for. He received his train operator’s 1 the train was going faster than usu al,” public broadcaster NHK said. Other passengers also speculated the driver might have been speed ng to make up for time lost when ae overshot the previous station by 15 feet and had to back up. The rain was nearly two minutes be lind schedule, media reports said. The crash occurred on a curve vith a speed limit of 43 mph. Murakami estimated the train would have had to be traveling at 82 mph to have jumped the track purely because of excessive speed. Some stretches of track in Japan have safety systems designed to stop trains at any sign of trouble without requiring drivers to take emergency action, but transport ministry officials said the automatic braking system along the stretch of track where the train crashed is among the oldest in Japan and can’t halt trains traveling at high speeds. Outside experts predicted investi gators would find a combination of factors to blame. “There are very few train acci dents in Japan in which a train has flipped just because it was going too fast. There might have been several conditions at work — speed, winds, poor train maintenance or aging rails,” Kazuhiko Nagase, a train ex pert and professor at the Kanazawa Institute of Technology, told NHK. “For the train to flip, it had to be traveling at an extremely high speed,” Nagase said. BOOK YOUR SUMMER IN OREGON 2005 JMIMER SESSION GROUP-SATISFYING AND ELECTIVE COURSES, SHORT COURSES, SEMINARS, AND WORKSHOPS BEGIN THROUGHOUT THE SUMMER. Summer session begins June 20. Registration begins May 2. The UO Summer Session Catalog with Schedule of Classes will be available in early April. You can speed your way toward graduation by taking required courses during summer. 2005 SUMMER SCHEDULE First four-week session: June 20-July 15 Second four-week session: July 18-August 12 Eight week session: June 20-August 12 Eleven week session: June 20—September 2 http://uosummer.uoregon.edu UNIVERSITY OF OREGON SUMMER SESSION 333 Oregon-Hall 1279 University of Oregon Eugene OR 97403-1279 Telephone (541) 346-3475 , UNIVERSITY OF OREGON Check our website http://uosunimer.uoregon.edu Train derails in western Japan A commuter train carrying 580 passengers derailed in western Japan Monday, killing at least 57 people and injuring 441. Takarazuka' Train derailment —% Osaka Bay 5 mi magasaki * ...y Osaka r _ CHINA ' RUSSIA ^ .V NORTH <J<OREA ZP1 Sea of Japan \ \ , JAPAN Tokyo Pacific Ocean 0 150 mi 0150 km SOURCES: ESRI; NGA AP IN BRIEF Iraqi politicians discuss transitional government BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraqi politicians on Monday again tried to end a dead lock over the formation of the coun try’s new transitional government, while the death toll from two well-co ordinated militant attacks against Iraqi police and civilians rose to 29. Insurgents, meanwhile, launched another attack on Iraq’s oil facilities, using explosives to set fire to oil pumps used for domestic supplies near Kirkuk, an official at Northern Oil Company said on the condition of anonymity. No injuries were immedi ately reported. On Sunday, lawmakers loyal to Prime Minister-designate Ibrahim al Jaafari said he was ready to announce a Cabinet that would exclude his inter im predecessor, Ayad Allawi. Some members of Al-Jaafari’s politi cal block said he had decided to shun further attempts to include members of the party headed by Allawi, the sec ular Shiite politician who had served as prime minister as the country pre pared for elections Jan. 30. Pope reaches out to Christians, Muslims VATICAN CITY — A day after reaching out to other Christians and to Jews in his installation Mass, Pope Benedict XVI met with members of the Muslim community Monday and assured them that the church wanted to continue “building bridges of friendship.” Benedict made the comments in a meeting with religious leaders who at tended his installation ceremony, say ing he was particularly grateful that members of the Muslim community were present. “I express my appreciation for the growth of dialogue between Muslims and Christians, both at the local and international level,” he said. “Peace is also a duty to which all peoples must be committed, especially those who profess to belong to reli gious traditions,” he said. “Our efforts to come together and foster dialogue are a valuable contribution to building peace on solid foundations." The Vatican didn’t say which Muslim leaders went to the private meeting. “I assure you that the church wants to continue building bridges of friend ship with the followers of all religions, in order to seek the true good of every person and of society as a whole,” he said. — The Associated Press
