Taiwan investigates train crash that killed 18

Taiwan's president pushed for a swift investigation Monday after an express train derailed on a coastal tourist route, killing 18 people as it sent sleeping passengers flying from their seats.

The crash on the popular east coast line injured another 187 people Sunday and left the Puyuma Express lying zig-zagged across the tracks in the island's worst rail accident for a quarter century. Among the victims were three students and two teachers from a junior high school in Taitung -- where the train was headed.

“Everyone is concerned about the cause of the incident and I've asked prosecutors to clarify the situation... and the cause soon,” President Tsai Ing-wen told reporters as she visited the scene of the accident Monday.

A task force and forensic units will determine whether the derailment was “an accident or human error” prosecutor Chiang Jen-yu said as investigators combed through the wreckage for evidence.

Passengers who survived the accident recalled how the train had been shaking intensely during the journey and was going “very fast” before it derailed. An official from the Taiwan Railways Administration said the train driver had reported a pressure device used for braking had malfunctioned 30 minutes before the accident, but that it should not have caused the train to go too fast.

In total, Taiwan has a fleet of 19 Puyuma Express trains, all made in Japan.

- AFP