21st anniversary of Hibiya line subway crash observed

Senior Tokyo Metro officials gathered at a memorial site at Meguro in Tokyo on Monday morning to offer prayers for the five people killed on March 8, 2000, when a train on the Hibiya subway line derailed. Sixty-four passengers were also injured.

At 9:01 a.m. -- the time of the accident -- the Tokyo Metro president and two other executives observed a minute of silence.

The accident occurred when the rear car of a train coming out of a tunnel derailed and hit an oncoming train on a parallel track near Naka-Meguro Station. An inspection revealed later there was a weight imbalance in the train wheels on both sides of the train that derailed.

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