Taiwan railway hit by multiple fatal accidents

TAIPEI: Taiwan's railway service has experienced four accidents in a single week, mostly due to trespassing on the tracks.

On the evening of August 18, a man was killed in Kaohsiung, a major city in Taiwan, after riding his bicycle onto the railway tracks and being struck by an oncoming train, Xinhua news agency reported.

This came a day after a train was forced to stop in Hualien after colliding with a stone that had been placed on the tracks by a teenager.

On August 13, a woman was killed by a train after she fell onto the tracks from a railway platform in New Taipei City.

Two days earlier, another trespassing man was killed after being struck by a train at night at Songshan station in Taipei.

There is growing public concern about railway safety on the island, with increasing calls for authorities to install platform doors at stations.

The Taiwan railway service provider responded that the installation is complicated by the variety of train car types.

It added that platform doors would be tested at the Kaohsiung station by the end of the year, and installation at other stations awaits further evaluation.