On the afternoon of the 26th, a major fire broke out in Hong Kong, which has resulted in 44 deaths, 58 injuries, and 279 people missing, with little hope of survival.
At dawn on the 27th – actually, late tonight – a train collision with construction workers occurred at a railway station in Kunming, resulting in 11 deaths and 2 injuries.
If the city fire was half natural disaster and half man-made disaster, then this train collision incident at the railway station was 100% man-made disaster.
At 0:35 a.m. today, a group of workers who should have entered the track to carry out maintenance work at 0:50 a.m. had already begun to change tracks.
A test train for detecting earthquake equipment roared past at a speed of 114 kilometers per hour.
The tragedy happened without any suspense – miracles only exist in movies, and there are never miracles in real life.
If everyone is equal in the face of a fire, then in such tragic accidents, the victims are always the most ordinary people.
The “notice” from Kunming Railway Station wrote: “On the early morning of November 27, the 55537 test train for detecting earthquake equipment, while normally passing the curve at Luoyang Town Station in Kunming, collided with the construction workers who entered the line, resulting in 11 deaths and 2 injuries… The station’s transportation order has returned to normal, and the treatment of the injured and related aftermath work are being carried out in an orderly manner…”
The wording of this notice is very particular.
First, the train “normally passed“, cleverly pointing out that the responsibility for the accident lies not with the station but with the maintenance party.
Second, the train “collided” with the workers. I really can’t use words to analyze the mentality of the person who wrote this situation report when using the word “collision”, but I firmly believe that he did not use this word casually, but after repeated deliberation, the purpose is to downplay the tragedy of the steel train hitting and crushing flesh and blood.
Furthermore, the notice emphasizes that “order has returned to normal”. I don’t know when it started, but after the tragedy, normal order and emotional stability have become the top priority.
Although the notice “expresses deep condolences to the deceased and deep sympathy to the families of the deceased and the injured”, this paragraph of text really cannot read any compassion for life, nor does it have a sense of self-blame.
Some family members of the victims and netizens questioned in the post: “Are 11 lives only exchanged for the restoration of order?”
Kunming Railway Station did not bother to explain or comfort, but arrogantly closed the comment section, and all 717 comments were hidden.
I don’t understand the management mechanism of the train, but in this accident, there is undoubtedly a major defect in the dispatching agency, and it is even possible that its dispatching agency has been derelict of duty like this, and the reason why such accidents have not occurred before is only luck.
Saying that it is dereliction of duty is not a random accusation out of ignorance.
First, at the beginning of this year, the railway department began to implement a “3-minute joint control” mechanism, through the CTCS-3 level train control system, to achieve a minimum tracking interval of 3 minutes for train operation control.
According to reports, the system includes track equipment, wireless network transmission, and train control system, through algorithms to achieve precise train positioning and second-level control, through real-time monitoring and dynamic adjustment, to reduce the risk of rear-end collisions.
If even a large group of living people cannot be found, how can a rear-end collision be avoided?
Professionals believe that in this accident, the “dynamic information exchange system is just a formality”.
Secondly, the railway department has a so-called “window period” management system, with the saying of construction window, maintenance window, and vertical window, V-shaped window.
This accident is a problem with the maintenance window. Although the construction workers were arranged to enter the site at 0:50 minutes, they were at least 15 minutes early. Obviously, the “window period” management system is only written on paper.
The notice also said that the railway department will “deeply learn from the lessons of the accident and fully ensure the safety and stability of railway transportation”.
There are too many such promises. As for how to rectify and how to rectify, no one knows.
On June 4, 2021, train K596 collided with and killed 9 track workers in Jinchang, Gansu Province, on the Lanxin Railway.
On June 4, 2024, a freight train on the Suijia Line in Heilongjiang collided with and killed 6 construction workers.
Look at the notice from that year –
It also stated that it would “deeply learn from the lessons of the accident and resolutely prevent and eliminate similar accidents from happening again”.
But no one knows how they “deeply learned from the lessons of the accident”, nor did anyone see how they “prevented and eliminated similar accidents from happening again”.
What we see is that similar accidents happen again and again.
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