The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board has cited two major oversights that caused a deadly metro crash in Taichung earlier this month. A construction crane boom fell on the tracks of the Taichung Metro on May 10, resulting in a collision that killed one and injured 10 others. According to the safety board, the construction company operating the crane had failed to take effective risk management measures. The board also criticized the Taichung MRT for lacking a detection system for large objects that could obstruct a train’s path.

Earlier this month, a construction crane boom fell onto the Taichung MRT’s Green Line, killing one person and injuring 10 others. Twenty days later, the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board released an interim safety bulletin on the incident.

The bulletin listed two major oversights.

First, it pointed out that although the construction project was next to the MRT line, no effective risk management measures were taken to prevent machinery from obstructing the MRT system and affecting its operations. Second, it critiqued the metro’s driverless system, which has no warning system for large foreign object intrusions.

Voice of Steven Su
Taiwan Transportation Safety Board
Our suggestion is that that the operator of the driverless MRT system draws up early warning and contingency measures for track obstructions, so that front-line staff can respond to emergencies in a timely manner.

Hsu Tai-ming
Taichung Mass Rapid Transit
Due to its technical nature, such a detection system would have to be connected to the core system of the unmanned driving system. This would take time to discuss. The Before such a system is up and running, Taichung MRT has implemented some temporary measures.

The Taichung MRT says that installing a foreign object detection system will take time. For now, three preventative measures have been taken: Keeping the train controls accessible at all times, allowing manual blocking of doors to stop the train, and enhancing the response capacity of the system’s control center. A Taichung councilor says that is not enough.