China Bullet Train Derails

[bryant.english]

Here's what I think happened:

The first train stopped due to power failure and the second train crashed into it. This was widely reported and there was no cover up.

Rather than dragging out the tragedy they've decided to clean up the mess and carry on.

In England, we used to call that a stiff upper lip.....Keep Calm and Carry On.

Of course nowadays there would be meaningless snivelling public enquiries that would drag on for years costing millions of taxpayer pounds and making lawyers rich. Later, a three thousand page document would be produced that advises that another layer of red tape and cotton wool be wrapped around the human condition...

I respect there decision...bury the bloody thing and get on with it..

[bookblogger]

I respect there decision...bury the bloody thing and get on with it..

I dare say you are the only one who does.

[bookblogger]

Even the official Chinese media are against the government on this one:

One of China's official newspapers has accused the authorities of "arrogance" in their handling of a deadly high-speed train crash, joining a rising chorus of public fury. The Global Times contrasted the "bureaucratic" attitude of officials with a booming "public democracy" on the Internet, in an unusually scathing editorial published in both its English and Chinese versions.

"They (authorities) have become accustomed to only being praised in the past and when facing a crisis, they believe they can deal with the public in a bureaucratic way," said the paper. "However, public opinion in China cannot stand this any more."

The outspoken comments in the Global Times, part of the same stable as the Communist party mouthpiece the People's Daily, came a day after reports said the media had been ordered not to question the official line on the crash.

RTHK English News

[justjoe86]

As usual...

I see how it is done in China, compare with how it is done in the West, and come to the conclusion that it should be done somewhere in the middle.

This is true for pretty much everything!!

[TheBrit]

I dare say you are the only one who does.

Yes, not even Bryant can suggest they were right to start burying the trains before removing the bodies.... Can he?

[Dreadnought]

Rather than dragging out the tragedy they've decided to clean up the mess and carry on.

In England, we used to call that a stiff upper lip.....Keep Calm and Carry On.

Of course nowadays there would be meaningless snivelling public enquiries that would drag on for years costing millions of taxpayer pounds and making lawyers rich. Later, a three thousand page document would be produced that advises that another layer of red tape and cotton wool be wrapped around the human condition...

I respect there decision...bury the bloody thing and get on with it..

I suppose if things really work better this way, then Boeing and Airbus may well do away with their respective crash investigation teams.

Then again, and this is something the more perceptive among us well understand, the level of safety in modern day air travel is attributed to the painstaking forensic investigation carried out by hundreds of men and women who examine every inch of aircraft debris and pore over page after page of telemetry data to recreate the incident and find out what went wrong (sans political expediency) so systems can be developed to ensure that it doesn't happen again, and so people like you and I can arrive home safe at the end of a long trip away.

Call this what you want, it is anything but that which the English call stiff upper lip. It is a cover-up. What it is covering up, I guess we'll never find out now, will we?

Your expert commentary, on what happened, is a class act. Bravo.

[drumbrake]

Read what Yang Feng, who lost five members of his family in the train crash, says about the Railways Ministry.

"I climbed into the train wreck myself," he told Hong Kong media, "and I saw hands and legs, but there was no one to help them." Firefighters on site told him that they didn't have the required machinery, that there weren't any signs of life anymore (!!!) and that clearing would begin from around 5am. "When Carriage 16 was moved from the track onto the ground, there was zero concern for the people inside," said Yang.

"My wife was disfigured beyond recognition and my sister-in-law lost half of her head... They started clearing away the trash while people were still inside! Are people less important than trash? Why did the firefighters disappear as soon as the guys from the Ministry of Railways arrived? Are lives more important or the repair of the rail network?"

More at Shanghaiist

[MovingIn07]

It's horrific. The accident was an accident (perhaps one waiting to happen, but at least an accident when it did happen). Burying the wreckage with people's relatives still in it is a choice. Goodness knows how they are going to get closure, let alone improvements to safety later based on good analysis of what went wrong.

[Football16]

There is corruption and incompetence in every country and sometimes it causes deadly accidents. I bet if the same accident had happened in the US, a certain someone wouldn't have made a thread out of it...

Train derailment sparks huge fire, evacuations - US news - Life - msnbc.com

This is a big issue for those of us who take trains in China including me with my wife on her upcoming trip to meet me here.

Much like road safety is a huge concern in China.

CCTV English were saying today that accidents in coal mines, roads, etc are issues that must be addressed in China. Premier Wen Jiabao was quoted in the same story as pushing the point that safety has to be paramount and threatening those who could be found responsible.

Also a road signal company has put up an apology in Chinese on their website (even before this has been confirmed to be an issue.) Quite amazing that they'd do that if this is true.

[drumbrake]

RTHK: Wen vows punishment for rail crash

Premier Wen Jiabao has pledged that any person found responsible for last weekend's deadly train crash will be severely punished.

He just doesn't get it. The problem is not the individuals, but the whole system, which he heads.