Trains crash in Bangkok's new subway, 100 injured

[Nicke]

Trains crash in Bangkok's new subway, 100 injured

BANGKOK : Two trains on Bangkok's five-month-old subway system crashed during the morning rush hour Monday, injuring around 100 people and forcing authorities to suspend services, officials and witnesses said.

"The accident happened around 9:30 am (0230 GMT) when the train headed to Hua Lam Pong left Thailand's cultural center station and was hit from behind by another train that was empty," police Major General Dusitsan Teraphat, deputy metropolitan commissioner, told Thai television.

"Initial reports said almost 100 people were injured. Police and authorities rescued all passengers from the train," Dusitsan said.

The head of Bangkok's subway system, Prapat Chongsanguan, told Thai television that the empty train had just left a maintenance station where it received repairs when it slammed into the crowded rush-hour train carrying some 700 people.

He said officials were investigating the cause of the accident.

Prapat told reporters at the scene that the driver of the empty train had been hospitalized with serious injuries.

One passenger, Wasita Buranasing, told Thai television that she heard a loud sound before the accident.

"Passengers were trapped inside the train for 10 or 15 minutes before the doors opened," she said in an telephone interview on television.

The train was heavily damaged, with broken handrails and debris tossed about, she said.

Television footage show people being carried from the station, some of them visibly bleeding.

-- AFP 2005-01-17

[aussie dollar]

Subway to sit idle for many weeks
Published on January 19, 2005

It will take several weeks, if not months, before the Bangkok subway is back in operation after Monday’s crash that left more than 200 people injured.

The Cabinet yesterday instructed the Mass Rapid Transit Authority of Thailand (MRTA) to close the subway indefinitely.

Bangkok Metro Company Limi-ted (BMCL) managing director Sombat Kitjaluck said he could not say when the subway would resume operations. Training staff to minimise the probability of human error will take more than two weeks. After the training, the company will conduct a trial period.

Starting full-fledged operations depends on whether the BMCL can restore confidence that there will not be any further human error, said Prapat Chongsanguan, governor of the MRTA.

Prapat said he would invite the country’s leaders and the prime minister for a test ride to build up public confidence and allow the public to use the subway free of charge during the trial. He

also plans to ask police to mark

off-limits areas in case of accidents or emergencies.

“Subway officials could not carry out their duty on Monday because the incident attracted the media and onlookers,’’ he said.

Sombat said he has suspended subway officials found responsible for the crash. MRTA deputy governor Ronachit Yaemsa-ard said the agency would question three other officials as well.

Police would take no more than two weeks to investigate how the accident occurred, said Colonel Monthian Prateepawanit, deputy commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau.

Separately, nearly 58 per cent of Bangkok residents surveyed yesterday said they would continue travelling by subway despite Monday’s accident, saying they believed any serious safety flaws would be rectified.

Slightly more than 30 per cent of the 1,423 respondents said they were confident in the system’s safety, while 49 per cent said they were not, according to results of the survey conducted by Assumption University.