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Two passenger trains collided in eastern China in the early hours of Monday morning, leaving 66 people dead and over four hundred injured.
The accident occurred just outside Zibo city in Shandong province. One train was on its way from Beijing to the summer resort of Qingdao, the other was travelling from Yantai. Ten carriages were sent off the tracks and veered into a ditch.
Transport Under Scrutiny
The cause of the crash is still unknown but it is believed to be the worst train incident in China in ten years. As a result of this the safety of the country’s transport system is being placed under scrutiny.
It was only in January that 18 maintenance workers died when they were hit by an oncoming train near the city of Anqiu.
“Not Quite Up to Maintenance”
Broadcast journalist Jenny Steel has travelled across many parts of Asia and spent six months in China teaching English.
She discussed the security of China’s train system with 24Gold. Steel said the cheapest of the train fares in the third class are “really uncomfortable and people are sort of piled on top of one another – you can imagine if there was a crash it could be quite dangerous”.
Whilst during her time in China ten years ago she didn’t feel unsafe, Steel had the impression that the system was “not quite up to maintenance”.
Recently though there has been rapid development in the way trains operate in China – but Jenny worries there may have to be “some concessions as to how safe, especially the workers are that are involved in making it”
