KL train crash: Test train was going in the wrong direction
[KUALA LUMPUR] A preliminary investigation into a collision between metro trains in Kuala Lumpur indicated that the collision occurred because the driver operating a test train was going the wrong direction, Malaysia's transportation minister, Wee Ka Siong, told reporters on Tuesday afternoon.
The trains were travelling at speeds of 12 to 25 mph when they crashed on Monday evening. The authorities said all 213 passengers were hurt, including 47 who suffered serious injuries. No fatalities were reported.
Mr Wee told reporters that the accident was the first head-on collision in the 23-year history of the city's Light Rail Transit system.
He added that he would create a task force to investigate the crash and expected a preliminary report in two weeks.
"This is something that is out of the ordinary and it is not supposed to happen," he said. "Is it signaling, or system, or complications, or human error? A special task force will be formed and its objective is to determine the exact cause of the collision."
The trains are automated and typically operate without a driver.
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But the train that was on a test run was under the control of a driver, the only person aboard.
"We are still investigating the incident," Mohamad Zainal Abdullah, the police chief of the district where the collision occurred, told reporters, "but we suspect that perhaps there was a miscommunication from the trains' operation control centre."
Hours after the crash, Malaysia's prime minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, called for a "full investigation" in a post on his Facebook page. "I take this accident seriously," he said.
He described the crash as "serious" and urged authorities and the train operator to "conduct an in-depth probe".
The accident happened in an underground tunnel close to the landmark Petronas Twin Towers at around 8.45 pm Monday, when a packed train collided with another that was empty and heading in the opposite direction on the same track.
Passengers were left battered and bruised after being thrown across carriages during the crash, with many evacuated on stretchers.
Most suffered minor injuries but 64 were taken to hospital, and six were in critical condition Tuesday, authorities said.
One passenger, Lim Mahfudz, described the moment the trains collided.
"This resulted in all seated passengers being thrown... and standing passengers being thrown," he wrote on Twitter, adding people were injured as glass flew around the carriage.
It was a "real nightmare", he said.
"The impact was so strong that I suffered injuries to my head, left leg and chest," another passenger, Afiq Luqman Mohd Baharudin, told official news agency Bernama.
Shaken passengers had to be evacuated by emergency workers from the tunnel, and brought up to the surface.
NYTimes, AFP
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