Two Chinese bullet trains have collided - killing 16 passengers - first major accident on the high-speed rail network -
Read more - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8656759/Chinese-bullet-train-falls-from-bridge-after-collision.html#.TisB3WHpxJU.email
The accident, just after 8.30pm in Shuangyu, close to the city of Wenzhou on China’s east coast, came after the first train lost power in a lightning strike and came to a halt.
According to the state news agency Xinhua, the D3115 train was then hit from behind by a second train, the D301 train. The two bullet trains, which run on electricity, are capable of hitting a top speed of 155mph.
The impact derailed the first four carriages of the D301 and sent two of them crashing from tracks that were built on concrete pillars around 50ft high.
A reporter from Zhejiang radio, on the scene of the accident, said one carriage had broken in half upon hitting the ground. The impact derailed the train and its third and fourth carriages fell from the side of the bridge.
Early reports said the death toll was 16, but each carriage was thought to have contained at least 100 people and there were fears that the total would rise.
Local hospitals said they had received 89 people with injuries, with three of them in a critical condition. Queues of people have formed in Wenzhou to donate blood.
A passenger on the train, who sent a short message using Sina Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging service, said: “About 8.35pm the carriage suddenly shot forward at high speed. Luckily I was sitting down.
"The train slid for five to six minutes and then the whole carriage went pitch black and listed to the left. After 10 minutes the train staff asked us to slowly exit the train. We walked out slowly on the muddy road by Xi’ao mountain.”
Other passengers using Sina Weibo appealed for help. One said: “I can see the carriages that fell. I would probably have died if I had been sitting in them.”
The stretch of line between Hangzhou and Fuzhou, on which the trains were running, was completed in 2009 and is one of the eight high-speed rail corridors that form the backbone of China’s network.
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