Two trains came within 93 meters of a head-on collision at a station in Shiroishi, Saga Prefecture, on Friday.
JR Kyushu said the incident occurred just after noon at Hizen-Ryuo Station on the Nagasaki line. A train was stopped at the station when a limited express train mistakenly switched over onto the same track, Saga Shimbun reported Saturday. The driver saw the stationary train ahead and applied the emergency brake, bringing his train to a stop within 93 meters of the other train, preventing a potentially catastrophic head-on collision.
There were about 230 passengers on both trains but nobody was injured.
JR Kyushu officials apologized at a news conference on Friday night and said they will work with a team from the Japan Transport Safety Board to find out what caused the near miss.
© Japan Today
8 Comments
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A.N. Other
Woo. That could have been nasty. I wonder who gets the driver's underwear dry-cleaning bill?
paulinusa
Doubt the "train" switched the track. More likely a railroad worker in a remote location.
TelcoPhil
The train did switch from onetrack to the other, so yes, the train switch the track.
KnowBetter
Semantics here people but really, the trains, 'the driver' I don't think has the ability to make the 'switch' flip to change the track the train is on. Usually this is done from a central control centre or failing that by hand at the actual switch on the tracks.
Mocheake
Mistakes happen. Good thing the driver was alert.
paulinusa
@KnowBetter: I agree. Never have I heard of a train engineer ( industrialized country) who has the ability to switch tracks.
A.N. Other
FYI It is possible to switch on some light rail, such as trams. The driver manually steers the train over the switches/points.
paulinusa
Maybe so, but a JR train? No way. There are tens of thousands of railroad km in Japan. Imagine if all train engineers on all lines on every schedule could manually change tracks. Doesn't happen and never will. It's possible the engineer has input but JR central control makes the ultimate decision as to what track a train is on and only they have the ability to change the track.