Playback ’05] “It’s Like Watching a Hellscape” – Voices from the Scene of the Fukuchiyama Line Derailment, the Worst in JR History

What did “FRIDAY” report 10, 20, or 30 years ago? In “Playback Friday,” we take a look back at the topics that were hot at the time. This time, we will look back at ” The biggest tragedy in history was a driving error! 　The Amagasaki JR West train collision that killed and injured 400 people.

At around 9:18 a.m. on April 25, 2005, a train on JR West’s Fukuchiyama Line between Tsukaguchi and Amagasaki stations derailed after failing to negotiate a curve and crashed into an apartment building on the side of the tracks. It was the worst accident since the privatization of Japan Railways. This article reports on the scene immediately after the accident. The title of the article, “400 people killed or injured,” refers to the number of victims as of April 25, 2005, when this magazine covered the accident. (Descriptions in parentheses are taken from past articles, and all ages and titles are as of that time.)

My face was smashed into the windowpane.

Although the train was supposed to have seven cars, only six cars were visible from the sky. The first car, which had disappeared, had smashed into the first floor of an apartment building. The second car was on top of it.

The smell of blood was in the air, along with the smell of burning motors. Passengers were crawling out of the broken windows of the “safe” car. Moans of “ouch” and “suffering” could be heard from the smashed car. Employees from a nearby factory and others went to help, crowbars and saws in hand, but there was nothing they could do about the first car, which had been flattened to the ground.

The rapid train that caused the accident left Takarazuka Station at 9:03 am and arrived at Itami Station at 9:14 am. Here, the train overran and returned to its stopping position, causing it to depart 1 minute and 30 seconds later than scheduled. The next station, Tsukaguchi, was also one minute behind, and the accident occurred about 1 km ahead of that station. Passengers described the accident as follows.

“I thought the train was going much faster than usual. The speed was frightening. I felt the train swaying from side to side, and suddenly the brakes came on. We fell forward, and then a bang. Then I was knocked down like I was being blown off the train.

A 29-year-old woman with a bloody face described her horror.

I was knocked down and my face hit the windowpane and I fell in. I managed to escape, but there were people around me with their faces buried in the glass, motionless. It’s a wonder I’m alive today.

A worker at the plant helped me escape through the car’s coupling. Nearby, there were people bleeding and receiving heart massages, and it was like watching a scene from hell.

Even well-informed people pointed out the “abnormal state of mind.”

The number of casualties was so large that the process of transporting people to hospitals was difficult. Some apparently died because ambulances could not reach them in time. Many of the injured were transported using the private cars of nearby residents. Hospitals quickly filled up, creating a state of panic. Some people were unable to contact their relatives at the scene, and some were reportedly distraught and made appeals to this magazine’s reporter.

The speed limit on the curve at the scene was 70 km/h, but based on passenger testimony, it was believed that the train was traveling well over that speed limit. The deceased driver, 23, had been driving the train for only 11 months, and a JR official explained the cause of the accident : “At Itami Station, we caused a delay of one and a half minutes due to an overrun. JR West speculated that the driver may have been in a hurry and sped up in order to make up for the delay that he was responsible for.

It was also pointed out that JR West was making efforts to increase speed in order to attract passengers from competing private railways, and that there was no room in the timetable. Once a train is delayed, it is said that it is impossible to catch up by normal speed-up, and this unreasonable timetable may have been a remote cause of the accident. The traffic critic Ryohei Tsunomoto (died in 2004) also pointed out the following.

He said, “It is difficult to imagine drivers violating the speed limit because their own lives are at stake. If there is such a thing, it is probably because he was in an abnormal state of mind or had a sudden change in his physical condition. However, there are still too many things we don’t know to make a definitive statement.

JR West’s Structure Criticized

The Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission (now the Japan Transport Safety Board) issued its final report on the accident on June 28, 2007. The report stated that the cause of the accident was “the delay in the driver’s use of the brakes, which caused the train to enter a right curve with a radius of 304 m at a speed of approximately 116 km/h, far exceeding the speed limit of 70 km/h.”

The background was the overrun at Itami Station. The actual distance of the overrun was 72 m, but the driver asked the conductor by telephone to report a shorter distance , saying, “Can you give me a break? In response, the conductor was apparently concerned that he had cut off the call midway to deal with passengers (in fact, the conductor reported the overrun distance as 8 m, which was initially reported in the media as “8 m”). The report concluded that the reason for the delay in braking was as follows.

“The conductor was paying special attention to the communication between the conductor and the transportation command staff because he thought he had been cut off from the onboard phone call requesting a false report, and he was thinking of excuses, etc., because he was concerned about being forced to undergo day shift training.”

The report further states that the reason the driver fell into such a state of mind may have been related to JR-West’s management methods, which have been used to re-educate and discipline drivers who have made mistakes, which is tantamount to disciplinary action.

Before the accident, a Diet member had pointed out that “ day shift training” could cause a serious accident. In addition, it was reported in the media that the driver who caused the accident had received day shift training three times in the past, and that he had stated that his salary had been cut and that he really did not like it, leading to criticism of JR West’s management system.

The accident prompted the government to mandate the installation of automatic train stops (ATS) to prevent overspeeding at sharp curves, etc. JR West completely revised its timetable, which had no margin for error. In order to make it easier to report errors, the company also changed its policy of not punishing drivers and conductors in principle, except in the most egregious cases.

Only the lower four floors of the apartment building where the accident took place were left standing, and since 2006 they have been used as a memorial facility called “Prayer Forest,” where a memorial service is held every year on April 25.