Derailed from Common Sense

It was not careless mistake but evil manipulation that plunged the company into turmoil. Hokkaido Railway Company, or JR Hokkaido, announced on Tuesday the result of investigation on line maintenance, in which the company found manipulation of data in thirty-three sections out of forty-four. The fact proved that consecutive railway accidents happened last year had their artificial reasons. In this country putting high value on people’s lives, the company invited extreme criticisms on its lack of sense on safety.

There were a number of accidents last year, some of which were absolutely unbelievable in a railway company. Fires broke out in trains and engine oil often leaked. A motorman was arrested in suspect of using drug, and another broke automatic train stop system to hide his mishandling. A fright train was derailed in southern area in Hokkaido, caused by abnormal distance between two rails. There also was announcement of train operation with broken emergency brake.

Making matters worse, the company attempted to conceal their mistakes. After the derailing accident, the local office for rail maintenance manipulated the data obtained around the site. The report on Tuesday revealed that such a kind of manipulation had been done in seventy percent of all the sections in the company. There was a witness that the manipulation had been continued from twenty years ago.

The company drew a miserable accident in 2011, which was train fire in the middle of a tunnel. Passengers walked out from the tunnel, their faces were all stained with soot. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism delivered a business improvement order to JR Hokkaido right after the accident. This time, the ministry delivered not only the second business improvement order, but also a supervision order that required improvements in management, culture or education in the company. The ministry also ordered resignation of a supervisor in safety operation.

What the company learned from the accident three years ago was cheating the ministry, and literally the passengers. This arrogance can be paralleled with a Chinese railway company that tried to bury the body of high-speed train after it crashed with another train and caused forty deaths in 2011. People in Japan are angry on JR Hokkaido, not because it was lazy in rail maintenance, but because it ignored passengers’ lives. However, there is no guarantee of making progress in this incompetent company even after strict orders came from the government.