Beijing, June 4 (BNA) A high-speed train driver in southern China was killed and eight people were injured when two cars derailed early Saturday morning after colliding with a mudslide, state-run CCTV station reported.
The accident occurred in the middle of the day while the train was entering a tunnel in the inland southern Guizhou Province. The Associated Press (AP) reported that she was traveling on a regular route to the coastal business hub of Guangzhou.
The CCTV network said that the injured are in stable condition, and 136 other people on the train were safely evacuated.
The cause of the accident is under investigation. Landslides have become common in the region from a combination of heavy rainfall and infrastructure development in mountainous areas.
China has the world’s largest high-speed rail network, with 40,000 kilometers (24,855 miles) of tracks nationwide, and trains running at speeds of more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) per hour. Hundreds of millions of passengers are flown annually, although this number has fallen sharply under the travel restrictions associated with the pandemic.
The system’s safety record was generally good, with the exception of a 2011 accident between two trains outside the southern city of Wenzhou that left at least 40 people dead and sparked a public outcry over an apparent attempt to cover up the extent of the damage.
China’s aviation sector has also come under scrutiny recently in the wake of the still unexplained China Eastern Airlines passenger plane crash on March 21, in which all 132 people on board were killed.
On May 12, a Tibet Airlines plane with 122 people on board was leaving from the southwestern city of Chongqing when it veered off the runway and caught fire. No one was killed, but several passengers were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
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