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Wenzhou Train Collision
On 23 July 2011，two high speed trains travelling on the Yongtaiwen railway line collided on a viaduct in the suburbs of Wenzhou，Zhejiang Province，China.The two trains derailed each other，and four cars fell off the viaduct.40 people were killed，at least 192 were injured，12 of which were severely injuried.Officials responded to the accident by hastily concluding rescue operations and ordering the burial of the derailed cars.
The collision was the first fatal crash involving high speed rail(HSR)in China，and is the third-deadliest HSR accident in history，after the 1998 Eschede train disaster in Germany and the 2013 Santiago de Compostela rail disaster in Spain.High speed was not a factor in the accident，however，since neither train was moving faster than 99 km/h(62 mph)，a moderate speed for a passenger train.
The accident，the first of its kind，had a profound impact on the development of high speed rail in China.Public confidence in high speed rail eroded，leading to lower ridership.Construction of high speed rail lines in China was temporarily suspended as the accident was under investigation.Speeds on other major high speed rail lines in China were reduced.
In response to the accident，Railways minister Sheng Guangzu announced a comprehensive two-month railway safety review.The official investigation completed in December 2011 blamed faulty signal systems which failed to warn the second train of the stationary first train on the same track，as well as a series of management failures on the part of railway officials in carrying out due procedure.
On 23 July，at roughly 20:00 CST，CRH Train D3115(CRH1-046B)，carrying 1072 people and travelling from Hangzhou to Fuzhou South came to a halt over a viaduct near the Ou River.Shortly after，CRH Train D301(CRH2-139E)，carrying 558 people and running from Beijing South to Fuzhou，crashed into the rear-end of the stationary D3115.
The cause of the crash was initially said to be a lightning storm occurring 20 miles(32km)south and 60 miles(97km)west of the viaduct.Lightning reportedly struck the first train，which caused it to stop on the tracks.However，five days after the incident，the Beijing National Railway Research＆Design Institute of Signals and Communications Co.Ltd.，a railway research institute，claimed responsibility，stating in a report that asignal on the track failed to turn red，and staff failed to notice the error.
A much more detailed description of what happened in the accident，correcting earlier accounts，was published in the December 2011 report of the official investigation.The first train D3115 was stopped not by losing power as a result of the lightning strike，but was stopped by the signal system，the Automatic Train Protection(ATP).The lightning had struck a trackside LKD2-T1 signal assembly，burning out its fuses，and violating the rule that it should be“fail-safe”.This had caused an incorrect indication in the control center that the track section containing Train D3115 was unoccupied(the so-called“green signal”).The driver He Li of Train D3115 worked to override the ATP and，after more than seven minutes of waiting，at 8:29 p.m.he got the train moving again，overriding the ATP.As the Train D3115 entered the next section of track，where the track circuits that indicate the presence of the train were working correctly，the control center now saw that the track section was occupied.But the driver Pan Yiheng of the following Train D301 had already been given instructions to proceed onto the section of track where D3115 had been stopped，when the control center had a false indication that the track was unoccupied.Despite a message from the control center that D301 should proceed with caution，less than half a minute later Train D301 running at 99 km/h(62 mph)collided with Train D3115.
The fifteenth and sixteenth coaches at the rear of D3115 and the front four coaches of D301 were derailed—four coaches fell off the viaduct.Three carriages came to rest horizontally on the ground below while the fourth came to rest vertically，one end on the ground and one end leaning against the viaduct.
The medical teams responding to the accident consisted of staff from Zhejiang No.1 Hospital.Zhejiang No.2 Hospital，Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital and Taizhou Hospital.The evening of the event，500 Wenzhou residents gave blood in response to early radio appeals by the local blood bank.
A survivor，Liu Hongtaohe，recalled that“the train suddenly shook violently，casting luggage all around，passengers cried for help but no crew responded”in an interview with China Central Television.CCTV reported on 25 July that the Railways Ministry had declared that 39 people were killed and 192 injured.Two-year-old Xiang Weiyi was the last person rescued，21 hours after the train crash.Her parents had been killed in the crash.
Soon after the accident，the damaged railway carriages were seen being broken apart by backhoes and buried nearby.Chinese regulatory bodies gave as the preliminary cause a lighting strike on one of the line's overhead power lines.
The U.S.Embassy in Beijing said on 25 July that two U.S.citizens were among the dead.The Italian consulate of Shanghai said that an Italian citizen was among the dead:Assunta Liguori，a 22-year-old student of the Universita degli studi di Napoli L'Orientale.Liguori was travelling with Giovanni Pan，a 23-year-old student from L'Orientale，of Chinese origin.
On 28 December 2011 the official accident investigation report presented to the State Council was released to the public.According to this report，the accident occurred due to severe defects in the design of control center equipment，lax equipment inspection and failure to adequately respond to equipment malfunction caused by lightning.The report names 54 officials as bearing responsibility for the accident and the botched rescue effort.The most senior official implicated in the report is former minister Liu Zhijun，who had been detained on corruption charges before the accident，but nonetheless is accused of improperly raising the operating speed of the Ningbo—Taizhou—Wenzhou Railway and compressing the construction schedule of the railway，which resulted in curtailed safety inspection of the line.He is also blamed for failing to assign proper duties to a newly-created office within the MOR to oversee passenger-dedicated high speed railway lines，failing to resolve bureaucratic overlap in the oversight of HSR safety within the Ministry that weakened regulatory oversight，and failing to direct subordinates to institute proper review and inspection procedures for newly-developed signaling equipment，which led the defective LKD2-T1 signal equipment to be put into operation.Other senior MOR officials cited include deputy minister Lu Dongfu，MOR chief engineer He Huawu and former MOR deputy chief engineer Zhang Shuguang.
The report also assigns fault to executives and engineers of the China Railway Signal＆Communications Corp.，which designed，produced and installed the defective equipment，executives of the Jingfu Railway(Anhui)Corporation，which permitted the faulty equipment to be installed improperly in breach of the contractual terms.Numerous officials of the Shanghai Railway Bureau，which operates the line，are also singled out for blame including former bureau chief Long Jing，who was fired shortly after the accident，as well as deputy bureau chief，Wang Feng，who ordered that wrecked train carriages be buried in pits dug on-site.The chief and deputy chief of Wenzhou South Station are faulted for inadequate oversight of employees.Among the most junior persons cited is Zang Kai，a worker at Wenzhou South Station who discovered signal failure on the Train D3115 but，in breach of protocol，failed to file a log report of the malfunction and did not communicate with the Train D301.