Prosecutors Launch Probe Into Train Derailment

Prosecutors have launched a probe into a partial train derailment in eastern Taiwan as footage of the accident emerges.

Transcript

00:00A swollen river in eastern Taiwan overflows, causing a rock slide onto these railroad tracks.

00:06The state-run rail company's own CCTV camera caught this footage last Friday, but a whistleblower

00:11inside the company says no one seems to have been monitoring the feed.

00:15Nineteen minutes later, an oncoming train crashed into the rocks on the track, derailing

00:20and injuring several passengers.

00:22There were about 20 minutes of footage in total, except for the accident.

00:29The CCTV camera was used by the staff, but where were they during those 20 minutes?

00:38The Taiwan Railway Corporation says the CCTV camera that caught the footage isn't there

00:43to watch for landslides, and that staff only monitor it in certain situations.

00:48This footage is used to monitor the water level.

00:51This is where you can see the water level of the large river.

00:55Our weather system, the Meteorological Department has set up a weather system,

01:03but it hasn't reached the forecast value.

01:05So we don't need to monitor the current SOP.

01:11But prosecutors are launching a probe into whether the rail company was negligent.

01:15We will still follow the process of the Taiwan Railway Corporation

01:19to see if the staff has fulfilled their responsibilities

01:25and whether they were negligent in causing the accident.

01:29But landslides are common in eastern Taiwan, whether from flooding like last week,

01:34or from earthquakes like the magnitude 7.2 tremor in April.

01:38As prosecutors look into last Friday's accident,

01:41the hope is that their findings will change policies

01:43and help prevent similar accidents from happening in the future.

01:47Eason Chen and John Van Triest for Taiwan Plus.