Focus Taiwan
Date: 2018/10/24
By: Ku Chuan and Lee Hsin-Yin 

Taipei, Oct. 24 (CNA) An Executive Yuan task force that is currently investigating the deadly derailment of a Puyuma express train on Oct. 21 said Wednesday that the train driver did report about turning off an automatic train protection (ATP) system, refuting what the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) said earlier in the day.

According to Minister without Portfolio Wu Tze-cheng (吳澤成), who is heading the task force, the driver told dispatchers at 4:46 p.m. that he had turned off the ATP, four minutes before the train derailed near Xinma Station, Yilan County.

Deactivation of the system could lead to speeding, which was the main cause of the derailment as the train was traveling at nearly twice the permissible speed when it entered the station, prosecutors said.

While the train driver had told prosecutors that he turned off the system near Daxi Station, 44 km north of Xinma, it had been unclear whether he had reported about his move and got approval as he should have.    [FULL  STORY]