EDITORIAL: 2005 derailment accident

A rapid train on the JR Takarazuka Line derailed in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, and killed 107 people. It is three years since that accident. This month, The Asahi Shimbun conducted a survey of the families of the victims. In response to the questionnaire, a father who lost his 20-year-old son wrote, "I feel hurt when people say things like, 'It's already been three years.' It is only three years out of something that we must bear all our lives."

Time does not heal the wounds. Nearly 40 percent of the people answered that they "feel worse physically or emotionally," compared with immediately after the accident. We are once again reminded of the gravity of the accident caused by West Japan Railway Co. (JR West).

The police investigation into the criminal liability of the accident has not been completed. Nor has compensation for the victims' families and those injured made much progress. There are still a myriad of unresolved issues.

One of the questions in the survey asked, "What do you want JR West to do?" The most frequent answers from the victims' families were a tie between "explanation of what caused the accident" and "implementation of prevention measures of any future such accidents."

The families have submitted a letter to JR West, demanding the railway company explain why it had failed to place an automatic train stop system at the site of the accident. But JR West has yet to give a proper answer. "We could not imagine that the driver would exceed the speed limit at that curve" hardly explains anything.

The desire of the victims' families for JR West to "implement prevention measures" is telling. They do not want the deaths of their children, husbands or wives to be in vain. JR West is slowly implementing various steps, like amending the punitive training program, which was an indirect factor leading up to the accident. But these steps have only gotten started.

What is important in order to prevent a recurrence of such accidents is to make JR West never forget this disaster.

There is a precedent that serves as a reference: the efforts of Japan Airlines after the August 1985 crash that killed 520 passengers and crew. JAL set up its Safety Promotion Center two years ago, which displays about 40 pieces of wreckage, including the pressure bulkhead, as a reminder of the accident. The aim is to make it a place where every employee takes the time to contemplate flight safety.

This wreckage display was created at the strong urging of Yotaro Hatamura, professor of Kogakuin University, who is an expert on the "science of failure." The exhibit is based on the idea that "people tend to forget that an accident ever happened unless items of wreckage are kept."

Kuniko Miyajima, who lost her 9-year-old son in the JAL crash, says: "It makes me feel that his life will have some meaning here. That gives me a sense of acceptance."

Some victims' families were in favor of the display, but others opposed. Miyajima says, based on her experiences, that you alternatively want to forget the tragedy but also want the company to never forget. Whether or not the wreckage should be put on public display is another matter, but Miyajima has argued that the wreckage should be preserved.

Once lost, we can never regain the derailed train or the damaged apartment building the train crashed into. The memory of the accident must not be allowed to fade. In order to prevent that from happening, we must look for ways to preserve the remnants of the accident so that they can be used to send out the message of rail safety, while all the time respecting the feelings of the victims' families and those injured.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 28 (IHT/Asahi: April 29,2008)