2023 Taichung crane collapse

On 10 May 2023, a construction crane fell 30 floors from a construction site of Highwealth Construction Corp onto a moving Taichung Metro Green Line train south of Feng-le Park metro station, Taichung, Taiwan, killing 1 and injuring 10 passengers onboard.

The deceased passenger, legal scholar , 52, was ejected out of the train carriage upon impact, resulting in her being crushed under the same train.

One passenger onboard, a Canadian national, claimed that the driverless train was stationary when the crane fell onto the tracks and the train then proceeded to drive and collide straight onto the fallen crane.

Investigation
It was revealed that the onboard train attendant followed company procedures to contact the control center about the crane obstructing the track. However, the control center at Taichung Metro would require 20 seconds to activate the emergency brakes remotely, which was insufficient to prevent the collision. The passenger emergency buttons onboard the train were not designed to immediately stop the train.

The Taichung District Prosecutors Office questioned Taichung Metro staff involved in the incident and ten Highwealth Construction Corp personnel who were responsible for the operation of the construction crane.

The operations control center detected a loss of power caused by the fallen crane, but power was automatically restored shortly after. Half of the control center staff were on meal break at time of the incident.

Timeline of incident
At a press conference, Taichung Metro revealed that based on CCTV footage of the train and the station before the fallen crane, the following events occurred:
 12:26:50 - Trainset 03/04 entered the station
 12:27:04 - Construction crane fell onto the track, breaching the noise barrier
 12:27:14 - Station security reported incident to station supervisor
 12:27:22 - Trainset 03/04 doors closes
 12:27:26 - Staff onboard trainset 03/04 found track obstruction, contacted control center and attempted to open the manual driving control panel to stop the train
 12:27:30 - Trainset 03/04 departed the station
 12:27:45 - Trainset 03/04 impacted with the fallen construction crane on track
 12:27:52 - Trainset 03/04 came to a complete stop

Reactions

Taichung Metro said they intended to seek at least TWD 0.2 billion (USD6.5 million) in compensation against Highwealth Construction Corp for damage and losses resulting from the collapse.

Other metro operators in Taiwan began to review and secure ongoing construction sites that were situated near the tracks.

Taipei Metro admitted that the existing procedures regarding driverless trains, such as the Wenhu Line, were inadequate to stop the train in time under a similar scenario as the track circuit would not be broken and detect a fallen crane, and staff opening the manual driving panel or informing the control centre to cut off power would have taken too long. Taipei Metro promised to develop new procedures to deal with such scenarios, and in the meantime metro staff were authorized to deliberately obstruct the platform or train doors from closing in order to prevent the train from moving off.

The acting chairman of Taichung Metro resigned after he was criticized for his performance post-collapse.

Taichung Metro proposed changes to procedures to prevent collapse of a similar nature. Changes in protocol included introducing a new standardized hand signal for staff indicating emergency stop is necessary, encouraging staff and passengers to prevent the doors from closing by obstructing the doors to prevent a driverless train from departing after witnessing an incident, and relocating the key to a separate, more accessible holder to allow roving staff to more easily open the manual driving panel to access the emergency stop button. Taichung Metro also promised updates to emergency devices at stations and obstruction detection devices that will allow a train to stop in time or prevent its departure in similar circumstances.

See also
 2021 Hualien train derailment - collision with construction machinery that fell onto the track

References

External links
 

2023 disasters in Asia
2023 in Taiwan
Engineering failures
May 2023 events in Asia
Railway accident deaths
Railway accidents and incidents in Taiwan
Railway accidents in 2023
2023 crane collapse