Facility to Preserve Crashed JR West Train Completed

Suita, Osaka Pref., Dec. 18 (Jiji Press)–West Japan Railway Co., or JR West, showed to the press Wednesday its recently completed facility to preserve its train that crashed in April 2005 to kill 106 passengers and the train’s driver. JR West has begun to allow bereaved relatives and people injured in the accident to tour the facility, which was completed Friday last week. The facility, sitting next to JR West’s employee training center in the city of Suita, Osaka Prefecture, western Japan, will not be opened to the general public in principle as opinions are divided among the bereaved families and surviving victims. In the accident, a seven-car JR West train derailed and crashed while traveling on a curve of the Fukuchiyama Line in the city of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, an Osaka neighbor, at a speed far exceeding the limit for the section. The one-story facility with one basement floor has a floor space of some 3,900 square meters in total, with all seven cars of the train exhibited on the first floor. The firm recreated the accident site on the basement floor by relocating rails and railroad ties from the site. As of Monday, 173 bereaved relatives and survivors visited the facility. Among the exhibits on the first floor are the severely damaged first through fourth cars, and passenger seats and hanging straps from the cars, as well as the drivers’ cabin, whose upper part was lost, and torn metal parts. The fifth through seventh cars are displayed connected. On the basement floor, belongings of victims are on display, such as bloodstained clothes and bags. “We deeply reflect on the fact that we did not fulfill our responsibilities as a company that must protect the precious lives,” an official of JR West said. “We are determined to make organization-wide efforts to ensure safety and develop a corporate culture that puts safety first.” END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]