Dashcam footage exhibits the truck got here into the practice driver’s view solely about 250 metres (820 toes), or 6.9 seconds, earlier than collision.
The truck that triggered Taiwan’s worst practice crash in many years was on the road for simply over a minute earlier than it was struck, officers have stated, as salvage groups labored to take away probably the most broken carriages.
Not less than 50 individuals had been killed and greater than 210 had been injured in Friday’s crash, which despatched a packed eight-car practice hurtling into the edges of a slim tunnel close to the jap coastal metropolis of Hualien.
Investigators stated on Tuesday that the Taroko Specific hit a railway upkeep truck on the road in a “head-on collision” moments earlier than it entered the tunnel.
The car slipped down a steep embankment and prosecutors are working to find out whether or not the driving force did not safe the parking brake or if the truck suffered a mechanical failure.
Investigators gave an replace on Tuesday which revealed how shut the victims had been to avoiding catastrophe.
“There was a bit of over one minute between when the truck slid to the observe and the Taroko Specific hit it, in line with our preliminary estimate,” stated Taiwan Transportation Security Board chairman Hong Younger.
Younger advised reporters that despite the fact that the practice driver had utilized the brake, the pace of the practice – it was travelling at some 120 kilometres (74 miles) per hour – couldn’t be lowered inside just a few seconds to keep away from the collision.
He stated it was clear from the practice’s recording gadgets that the driving force, who died within the crash, had taken the “crucial steps” and “he tried his greatest within the hope of avoiding a catastrophe”.
Seconds from collision
Dashcam footage confirmed the truck out of the blue showing across the nook of a bend and the practice smashing into it after which hitting the facet of the tunnel.
Officers stated the practice would have required a distance of 600 metres (virtually 2,000 toes), or 16.6 seconds, to completely cease – however when the truck got here into view there was solely about 250 metres (820 toes) or 6.9 seconds, through which to behave.
Friday’s crash came about at the beginning of Tomb Sweeping Competition, a four-day public vacation when many Taiwanese return to villages to tidy the graves of their ancestors.
President Tsai Ing-wen (second from proper) comforts an injured passenger following the practice accident on Friday [Taiwan Presidential Office via AFP]
Lee Yi-hsiang, the 49-year-old truck driver, was remanded into custody over the weekend, shortly after giving a tearful apology to the media.
Lee was a part of a contracted railway upkeep group who usually examine Taiwan’s mountainous jap practice line for landslides and different dangers.
Groups on the crash web site on Tuesday managed to take away a number of the extra broken vehicles which were lodged within the tunnel for the reason that crash.
Two carriages had been pulled free with offended scars of twisted steel down their sides.
The pulverised entrance automotive, the place lots of the fatalities came about, stays contained in the tunnel.
