JR West ‘fires’ execs over crash investigation
JR West yesterday ‘effectively dismissed‘ two top execs for their inappropriate handling of an enquiry into the the 2005 Amagasaki rail crash.
Although the departures of board member and former President Masao Yamazaki and current Vice President Ryuichiro Tsuchiya were termed resignations, they are seen as effective dismissals by JR West.
This comes just a week after railway expert, Michio Itaba, claimed that JR West had prepped him for the hearing into the crash. Later, even though he wasn’t selected by the government investigation body as a witness, JR West paid Itaba ¥100,000 in cash.
Earlier an inquest into the crash, inwhich 106 people lost their lives, concluded that 3 former-JR West executives, Masataka Ide, 74, Shojiro Nanya, 68, and Takeshi Kakiuchi, 65, ‘should be indicted’ over the accident.
According to the committee’s decision on Oct. 7, Ide, Nanya and Kakiuchi were top safety managers, doubling as the chairman of JR West’s comprehensive safety measures committee. The safety committee was aware that a similar derailment accident on the JR Hakodate Line in 1996 could have been avoided if an automatic train stop (ATS) system had been installed. Furthermore, the safety committee failed to upgrade the ATS at the accident site on the JR Fukuchiyama Line, even though a change to a curve in the section had caused a greater risk of derailment.
Tags: amagasaki rail crash, jr west
24/10/2009 14:56 
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