Written by Cindy, a Chinese interpreter from interpretersky
After the high-speed train crash that has claimed 39 passengers’s life(including 3 foreigners) and injured 192 Chinese travlers on Saturday, July 23 in Wenzhou, a city in Zhejiang province, many Chinese are asking a question: what caused the crash? The Chiense media said that it was the lightning strike that caused the train to halt, but many people as well as rail experts doubted it.
Currently, while the Ministry of railways is conducting an investigation to probe the cause for the fatal bullet train accident, the general public, including the train coaches, the rail signalling experts, the train drivers are extensively discussing online the real cause for the rear-end collision.
Why are they so concerned about the “real reason”?
First, the ordianry Chinese people hope that the related bureaus and agencies respect their basic right to know the truth. Actually, there is disquiet among the Chinese netizens as they know that the train’g front section has been buried onsite at the order of the railway authorities. The Chinese neticizens doubted the motivation to do so and then, on the night of July 25, the wreckage was excavated by the State Council’s special team, and shipped away for the investigation.
Second, the public hope that the Ministry of railways can really learn a lesson from the collision and avoid of similar accident in future, so that the Chinese people, also the future bullet train passengers can feel safe when taking the high-speed trains.
Third, the family members of the victims, like Mr. Yang, who lost his wife who has been pregnant for 7 months, his mother-in-law, and his niece, hopes that the government can tell him the truth, so that his dear family members deceased can be fairly treated after losing their lives.
As to what caused the rear-end crash, the first thing that comes to people’s mind is the failure on the dispatch management. It’s no doubt that something is wrong with the rail dispatch system, which was unable to prevent the train followed to slow down or to halt in the rear-end collision.
Mr. Shuai, a rail expert, said that the rear-end crash was theoretically impossible because the dispatch center could be informed the bullet train’s operation and position by two ways.
First, the bullet trains have radio signaling systems to keep in touch with the dispatch center, which is usually set up in every railway bureau. For instance, in the deadly accident on July 23 in Wenzhou, the Shanghai railway bureau has such a dispatch center giving orders to trains running in Zhejiang, including the two trains that collided.
Second, even if the lightning strike disabled the radio signaling system, the low-voltage rail should be able to detect a train on the path. Then it can send the information to the dispatch center's computer system, which is a very reliable way to inform the dispatch center. After receving the information, the dispatch center's computer system can automatically give a warning about train malfunctions or two trains comming too close, etc.
Then if everything worked well, the accident woudn’t happen. However, the collision happened. People guess that maybe the Shanghai dispatch cener’s computer system breaks down, or the signals fail to reach trains in time.
Anyway, people are still waiting for the truth issued by the government, and hope that the real reason can come to the public earlier, and give justice to the dead and the injured.
From www.interpretersky.com, to reprint, please indicate the source.
