Bullet Train Derails In China

chrb writes "Xinhua is reporting that a Chinese bullet train has derailed, resulting in two of the train's coaches falling off a bridge. This comes only a few months after officials at the Railways Ministry expressed concerns that builders had ignored safety standards in the quest to build faster trains in record time — a claim that was subsequently retracted."

Comments

Design difference with TGV

[Midnight Thunder]

My cynical nature seems to be not surprised about "that builders had ignored safety standards", in China.

One thing that should be mentioned is looking at the photos of the Chinese bullet train, is that the design did not inspire itself on one of the key advantages of the French TGV. That advantage being that the bogies are between the carriages and not under each carriage. Apparently the French designed it that way because it reduces the scope of damage due to derailment. The TGV has derailed, but it always derails in a straight line.

ref: Nova: Looking down the track at very fast trains

Re:Design difference with TGV

[MORB]

And it works incredibly well. The TGV had several high speed derailment that all caused only minor injuries.

It includes the world's fastest derailment at 294kph (182mph) where only one person was slightly injured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TGV_accidents

Re:Collision

[Dachannien]

Actually, it happened on Washington, DC's Metro system two years ago. A problem with a train proximity sensing system resulted in a failure to engage automatic braking on one train when it approached another train farther ahead that had broken down. In that case, there was evidence that the operator, shortly before her death, had attempted to stop her train manually, but didn't have enough advance warning to stop in time. Eight other people were killed, and in response, WMATA ordered operators to run their trains in manual mode at all times.