Puyuma's Failure Rate Only in the Single Digits: MOTC|普悠瑪故障率高達16%? 交部澄清:僅個位數

While Premier William Lai was making efforts to restore people's confidence, Transportation and Communications Minister Wu Hong-mo was absent from a scheduled interpellation in the Legislative Yuan, with his deputy presence instead. The Transportation Ministry says the Puyuma Express' malfunction rate is mostly single digits. Taiwan Railways, meanwhile, confirmed that the train's automatic protection system was off at the time of the accident. Investigators are trying to find out whether the system had been turned off or it was not on in the first place.


The Puyuma Express accident at Xinma Station killed 18 and injured close to 200. Taiwan Railways Director Jason Lu, who has tendered his resignation, told lawmakers during an interpellation the train's automatic train protection system was off at the time of the accident and there is no record in the train's communication log of the driver informing the dispatcher the ATP was off.

Its ATP display record, it was offline. Whether (the driver) didn't turn the system on or intentionally turned it off will be determined by prosecutors. We are going over the communication log right now. As of right now, it looks like the driver did not report that he (turned it off). But in the communication taking place between Yilan and Luodong, he did ask him but there was no response after that.

The driver is a very responsible driver, so that is probably why all the reasons -- this should be left up to the prosecutors to determine. Human error -- our preliminary findings indicate this, but the reasons behind it? We don't know.

The Ministry of Transportation and Communications believes there was negligence but says details remain unclear. Taiwan Railways says although the train did lose power earlier in the day of the accident, it arrived at Yilan Station traveling at normal speed and inspectors that boarded the train in Yilan found everything except the air conditioning system to be functioning normally. The inspectors concluded the air conditioning problem would not affect train operations and decided a replacement train was not necessary until Hualien. After Yilan, the train also pulled into Luodong Station at normal speed. What happened as it approached Xinma Station? There is a lot of speculation the driver was under pressure from Taiwan Railways at the time to drive faster.

Speeding to keep trains on schedule is not allowed. We do put pressure on drivers to stay on schedule, but only within the speed limit.

Taiwan Railways admits it has no idea if a train's ATP system is on or off without a driver report and a remote monitoring system is lacking. It says it will conduct a full evaluation. Investigators will also assess Taiwan Railways' antiquated and frequently malfunctioning radio system, which may have prevented the driver from making a report. The ministry, meanwhile, says the Puyuma Express' failure rate is only in the single digits and it has asked the Railway Bureau to look into making the Hualien Line's No. 16 turn safer.