One Dead, 27 Hurt in Japanese Train Collision

T O K Y O, Dec. 17 -- At least one person was killed and 27 people were injured after two small local trains collided head-on along the Sea of Japan coast today.

About 40 to 50 people were aboard the single-carriagetrains and at least 27 were taken to hospital, nationalbroadcaster NHK said.

The 57-year-old driver of one of the trains was killed, NHKquoted police as saying.

The trains did not derail but television footage of theaccident showed the driver’s compartments of both trains hadcaved in after the accident and windows were smashed on bothtrains.

“All the passengers fell on top of each other and there wasa lot of smoke after the accident,” one passenger told NHK.

The accident took place at about 1:30 p.m. inMatsuoka, Fukui Prefecture, about 220 miles west ofTokyo.

Train officials said they were checking the brakes of bothtrains to see if there had been a malfunction, NHK said.

It was Japan’s first fatal train accident since last Marchwhen five people were killed after a Tokyo subway train rippedaway the side of a carriage in an oncoming train that hadderailed in its path during rush hour. The accident injured 33people.

Japan’s railways, famed for running the “shinkansen”—orbullet train—have a very good safety record.

One of the worst train crashes in recent history took placein 1991 in Shigaraki, Shiga Prefecture in which 42 people werekilled and more than 600 injured.