The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) today released surveillance camera footage showing the moment an express train flew off the tracks yesterday as it sped around a bend in Taiwan’s Yilan County, causing 18 deaths and 187 injuries, Taiwan News reported.
The Puyuma express train had a total of 366 passengers onboard when it came off the tracks, according to TRA. All eight of the carriages on the train came off the rails, with five completely overturning.
In the 12-second video, the train can be seen rapidly approaching as it rounds a bend. Suddenly, the train’s engine starts to lean to its left before leaping off the tracks and rolling onto its left side.
The engine continues to skid at a high speed along the tracks as its trailing carriages each bounce off the tracks one after the other. Sparks starts to fly and smoke begins to billow as the lead engine and trailing carriages crash into poles supporting the overhead power lines and each other.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, meanwhile, offered words of consolation on Monday as she met relatives of the victims of Taiwan’s worst rail disaster in more than three decades.
Ms Tsai joined Buddhist monks in prayer before an altar adorned with flowers next to a county hospital, while nearby, relatives and friends of the victims wept as they sifted through battered suitcases recovered from the train wreck.
