Photo/Illutration Workers remove the derailed train in Taiwan’s Hualien County on April 3. An unmanned truck rolled onto the tracks outside a tunnel from a construction site on the hillside. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Around this time of the year, when spring comes into full swing, people in the Chinese cultural sphere celebrate the Qingming festival.

In a book on the history of social customs in China, author Shang Binghe describes the lively mood during the special season.

“The earth is full of balmy grass, with willows green and peach blossoms red, and men and women feel exhilarated as they revel in amusement,” according to the book’s Japanese translation.

Traditionally, people used to enjoy playing “Cuju,” or ancient Chinese football, cockfighting and riding a swing during the festival.

Above all, families visit the tombs of their ancestors to clean the gravesites, pray and make ritual offerings. The festival is similar in many ways to the Japanese “higan” week of Buddhist memorial services centering on the spring equinox.

People living far from home feel like returning to where they were born. Shang’s book says this is the time of the year when even “wanderers in the world long for home.”

On April 2, the first day of the Qingming holiday, an express train derailed in Taiwan’s eastern Hualien County, killing 50 people and injuring more than 140. The train must have been carrying many people returning home as well as vacationers.

Many of the train cars slammed into the walls of a tunnel, becoming mangled.

The narrow tunnel bored into the mountain posed obstacles to rescue efforts.

The cause of the accident is becoming clear. The train apparently collided with a truck that rolled onto the tracks from a construction site on the hillside. It is suspected that the truck’s emergency brake was not properly engaged.

Taiwan’s arterial railway line circles around the island, forming a loop surrounding mountainous inland areas. At many locations, passengers can enjoy both sea and mountain landscapes simultaneously.

If, as suspected, the cause of the accident came from a high place on a mountain and the tunnel exacerbated the damage, the tragedy is graphic evidence of safety risks for mountain-area railways.

Japan, a mountainous country, has important lessons to learn from the accident.

A train derailment can instantly take many lives, as occurred in 2005, when a packed commuter train derailed on the JR Fukuchiyama Line in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture. 

The latest accident reminds us that the security of train services is based on constant and meticulous attention to potential risks.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 4

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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