AMAGASAKI, Japan ?Rescuers untangling Japan’s worst train crash in decades uncovered body after body in the wreckage on April 27 to put the death toll at 91, but grim work remained in accounting for the dozens still missing, including the driver at the centre of the investigation into the wreck.
A probe into possible negligence by operator West Japan Railway Co has focused on the actions of the 23-year-old driver, his lack of experience and suspicions that the train was speeding before it derailed and slammed into an apartment building on April 25.
At least 456 people were injured.
Rescuers at the crash site in Amagasaki, about 410 kilometres west of Tokyo, found at least 13 bodies in the early hours of on April 27, Hyogo prefecture (state) police said. They also found a body seated at the front of the train and believed to be that of driver Ryujiro Taka, but that hadn’t been confirmed, the Kyodo news agency said.
The death toll was expected to rise further, with police saying an unknown number of victims were still in the wreckage. Kyodo estimated that at least 52 people were missing.
Rescue workers used power shovels to peel away the twisted metal of the two worst-damaged train cars, flattened against the apartment building.
Investigators swarmed eight offices of West Japan Railway Co on April 26, carting away cardboard boxes of documents in their probe into possible professional negligence.
Government investigators examining the accident site said they had found the train’s “black box,?a computer chip that stores information about the time and train’s speed in the final seconds before an accident. But they cautioned that the contents would take some time to analyze.
National broadcaster NHK reported that police suspected the train was going 100 kilometres per hour when it hit the curve where it derailed ?well above the 70 kilometre per hour (43 mph) speed limit.
Investigators said the driver may have been shaken after overrunning the last station by 40 metres (130 feet) and falling 90 seconds behind schedule.
(Agencies via Xinhua)
