Failure to evacuate quickly after accident a blunder
Charred train cars and soot-covered faces of passengers were scenes from the aftermath of a recent railway accident in Hokkaido. One passenger said, "I was engulfed by smoke, I thought I was going to die." As his comment suggested, one false step and this accident could have resulted in a catastrophe.
The accident occurred when an express train derailed and caught fire in a tunnel on the JR Sekisho Line in Shimukappumura, Hokkaido, late Friday. Hokkaido police searched the offices of Hokkaido Railway Co. on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in injury Tuesday. The Transport Safety Board of the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry also is investigating the cause of the accident.
The train may have jumped the tracks after some components around the thrust shaft fell off, and diesel engine oil then apparently caught fire for reasons that remain unclear.
Parts have fallen off trains of other JR companies about 10 times in the past. After Friday's accident, the transport ministry directed railway companies to conduct emergency inspections of diesel cars. In hindsight, it may be said that information obtained from the previous accidents had not been taken to heart.
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Pinpoint the cause
We want the investigative authorities to thoroughly examine the accident and pinpoint its cause.
In the Hokkaido accident, there was a major problem with evacuation guidance. Thirty-nine of the 248 passengers were taken to hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. The injuries were relatively minor because the passengers began evacuating the train on their own initiative.
The passengers fled through smoke to the tunnel exit nearly 500 meters away. It is shuddering to imagine what would have happened if the exit had been further away or if infants and physically disabled people had been onboard.
Eleven minutes after the train stopped, the conductor told the train operation center, "We should start evacuating." But the center reportedly ordered the conductor not to open the doors for fear that "smoke would enter the train."
The driver got out to check whether a fire had broken out, but did not see any flames. A JR employee who happened to be on the train also told the center that "there is no fire."
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Manual must be reviewed
The company's operation manual stipulates that fires be visually confirmed before evacuation action can be taken. This apparently impeded the train crew from leading passengers to safety.
As it turned out, the center realized a fire had occurred two hours after it broke out--and after all the passengers had escaped to safety.
Not stopping a train in a tunnel when there is a fire is an ironclad rule. But were procedures for dealing with a train that has become unable to move considered sufficiently? The operator's manual needs to be reviewed from top to bottom. In this instance, judgments made at the site of an accident should be respected.
JR Hokkaido has not conducted field drills to prepare for fires in tunnels, except for the Seikan Tunnel, the undersea link between Hokkaido and Honshu. In principle, the manual should be reexamined after conducting tunnel fire drills.
In recent years, there has been a string of accidents and problems involving trains in Hokkaido, including one that crashed into an out-of-service train parked at a station.
We urge everybody involved in operating trains to remind themselves of the principle that frequent small accidents can lead to a major accident.
Govt, TEPCO must pay compensation quickly
A government panel on Tuesday approved a second round of guidelines for determining which businesses and individuals are eligible for compensation for losses incurred as a result of the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Co.
On the same day, TEPCO began making provisional compensation payments to farmers and fishermen suffering from lower incomes due to shipment restrictions related to the crisis. The payments are being made under the first set of guidelines issued by the government panel in April.
We are glad the payment of compensation is moving forward, but the pace is still too slow. The government and TEPCO must hasten the payments to stop further economic damage, such as preventing farmers from going out of business.
One feature of the second round of guidelines is that it has expanded the losses eligible for compensation to those caused by rumors about radioactive contamination, and mental distress as a result of being forced to evacuate one's home per government instructions.
The panel has recognized that agricultural products harvested in Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures, and three municipalities in Chiba Prefecture have incurred losses due to such rumors. These areas were subject to government and other shipment restrictions by the end of April.
Many products from those areas were suspected of being contaminated with radioactive substances and suspended trading or were forced to lower prices, though they were not under shipment restrictions. It is appropriate that the panel has recognized the rumor-based losses that have affected a wide variety of food items.
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Compensation enormous
However, the panel should study the possibility of expanding the areas entitled to such compensation, depending on the extent of the damage. In May, for instance, radioactive contamination exceeding the safety limit was detected on tea leaves harvested in Kanagawa Prefecture, but they were not considered eligible for compensation at this time.
Also, only hotels and other tourist businesses based in Fukushima Prefecture are currently eligible for compensation for losses caused by rumors.
Agricultural cooperatives and other organizations have so far demanded 13 billion yen in damages, for such losses as having to destroy farm produce, from TEPCO. The utility will have to pay much more if losses caused by rumors are added.
The panel left untouched the complicated problem of how to calculate the amount of compensation for mental distress. The panel should work to draft easy-to-understand criteria to realize full-fledged compensation.
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Govt help needed
TEPCO is scheduled Wednesday to start receiving applications for provisional compensation for small and midsize businesses harmed by the nuclear crisis.
Government support is essential for the utility to quickly compensate farmers and small and midsize businesses. However, a bill to implement the government scheme to temporarily use public funds to help TEPCO is unlikely to be drafted in the near future.
A U.S. rating agency has downgraded TEPCO's corporate bonds to speculative status, saying implementation of the government scheme to help the company had been delayed.
TEPCO will not be able to accomplish its three missions--early resolution of the ongoing nuclear crisis, steady payment of compensation and providing a stable supply of electricity--while its credit is considered uncertain.
TEPCO must devote every managerial effort to make compensation. But if it still cannot cover the entire amount, the government, which has led the nation's nuclear policy, should clarify its willingness to shoulder the rest in a responsible manner.
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