JR West president indicted over 2005 deadly derailment+

KOBE, July 8 Kyodo -
West Japan Railway Co. President Masao Yamazaki was indicted Wednesday over the
2005 train derailment in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, which left 107 people
dead and 562 injured.
A speeding train derailed and crashed into an apartment building beside a
curved section of track on JR West's Fukuchiyama Line on April 25, 2005, and
Yamazaki, 66, was accused of professional negligence resulting in deaths and
injuries as he was in charge of safety measures when the company placed sharply
curving rails at the accident site in December 1996.
The Kobe District Public Prosecutors Office indicted him without arrest after
concluding the tragedy could have been avoided had an advanced type of the
Automatic Train Stop system been installed there at that time.
Yamazaki expressed his intention to step down following the indictment, saying
he ''would accept it with sincerity'' at a press conference held at the JR West
headquarters in Osaka.
The prosecutors, however, have decided not to bring charges against 12 other
people -- the company's eight former executives in charge of safety measures,
three ex-managers, including Masataka Ide, 74, and the 23-year-old train driver
who died in the accident.
Although the four-year investigation resulted in the indictment of a railway
company president, an extremely rare conclusion for a rail accident, Yamazaki,
for his part, has told the prosecutors he could not have predicted the fatal
accident, according to them.
''I will seek a decision from the court. My claims have been consistent,'' he
told the press Wednesday.
Around three months after making the curve of the rails steeper in 1996, the
company drastically increased the number of rapid trains to achieve greater
speed.
Shortly before the replacement, a freight train derailed and overturned in
Hokkaido as it could not navigate a steep curve, and Yamazaki was reported as
saying that the Hokkaido accident could have been prevented if the ATS had been
installed, according to the prosecutors.
The indictment came after the victims of the accident filed criminal complaints
against Yamazaki and six others, and the Hyogo prefectural police sent papers
on 10 of them, including Yamazaki, to the prosecutors in September last year.
In January, bereaved families of the victims filed criminal complaints against
three ex-managers, papers on whom were not sent to the prosecutors.
The prosecutors questioned around 200 senior officials of JR West while
searching the Osaka headquarters of the company as well as Yamazaki's home to
collect some 2,000 items relating to train operations.
As a result, the prosecutors determined only Yamazaki among the 13 could have
decided to install the ATS and should have predicted the accident, though they
have not been able to collect conclusive evidence to prove it.
Yamazaki's indictment was widely accepted by bereaved families and victims, but
some were dissatisfied that the prosecutors waived indictment of the top
management members at the time.
''The indictment (of Yamazaki) will help us find out what caused the
accident,'' said Tsuneo Okumura, 61, who lost his 21-year-old daughter Yoko in
the crash.
''The top management also needs to take responsibility. I intend to lodge a
claim against the decision at the committee for the inquest of prosecution,''
he said.
There remain many railway points nationwide at which ATS systems have not been
installed, although the areas curve almost as steeply as the accident site.
More than 600,000 trains went through the curved section on the Fukuchiyama
Line without major trouble before the 2005 accident since the 1996 placement of
the curving rails.
Given these factors, it is expected that the prosecutors will face difficulties
in establishing Yamazaki's guilt.
The prosecutors, meanwhile, will explain their investigations to the accident
victims and the bereaved families on July 26.
==Kyodo