Rescuers try to reach passengers in a derailed commuter train in Amagasaki, Japan. The crowded seven-carriage train rammed into an apartment building, killing at least 54 people and injuring some 340 others. Photo by WN
At least 54 people were killed and more than 400 injured when a commuter train derailed, ramming a carriage into an apartment block in Japan's deadliest rail accident in four decades. Officials suspected that the train's 23-aged driver was speeding and failed to negotiate a corner, throwing four of the train's seven carriages from the tracks in Amagasaki, a working-class western town near Osaka and Kobe. The train, which was carrying some 580 passengers in the morning rush hour, appeared to be speeding as the driver was running late after he missed a station and had to back up to let off passengers. The accident occurred in Amagasaki, 400 km west of Tokyo.