National Railway Administration updates railway safety after accident

A preliminary probe looking into the cause of a rare train derail accident has found that the bullet train ran into mud and rockslides that had entered the railway track, railway authorities said on Friday.

The mud and rockslides were caused by local continuous rainfall and short periods of heavy rainfall, the probe said.

After the accident, the railway department launched safety inspections during flood season, with special attention to major areas and routes, such as tunnel entrances and sharp slopes, An Lusheng, deputy director of the National Railway Administration of China, told a news conference on Friday in Beijing.

It also improved the alert system, enhancing monitoring natural disasters, implementing a report system regarding railway safety and establishing a communication mechanism between the railway and the public security departments, aiming to build a safety barrier during flood season to ensure safe travel, he said.

On Saturday, two of the D2809 train's carriages came off the tracks at a point that had been hit by mud and rockslides just before arriving at Rongjiang Station in Guizhou province. The train driver died, and two attendants and 10 passengers were injured.

The train departed from Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, for Guangzhou, capital of southern China's Guangdong province.