China: train crash due to “serious design flaws”

Chinese authorities reportedly blamed last weekend's high-speed train crash on "serious design flaws" in the railway signaling equipment.

China's official news agency Xinhua reported Thursday that the crash, which killed 39 people and injured 192, happened because the Wenzhou South railway station's signaling device stopped working after being hit by lightning and did not turn from green to red, the New York Times states.

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Furthermore, An Lusheng, chief of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, told Xinhua that workers at the station were not trained properly and did not notice or correctly handle the signaling device failure.

Saturday's crash happened when two bullet trains collided in China's eastern province of Zhejiang. The crash caused six carriages to derail and four to fall from a viaduct.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visited the site of the crash and met with victims' families, the BBC reports. He also called for an inquiry into the crash and promised to take steps to improve the rail system's safety.

The Chinese government has come under attack by the public for the accident as well as how the government has handled the aftermath, BBC states.

Saturday's crash has led to questions over the safety of China's high-speed rail system, with some experts expressing concern that it was built too quickly and without proper care. An editorial in the Washington Post argues that the project was plagued by corruption.

"A flood of skeptical, even angry, comment on the Chinese Internet suggests that the damage-control effort isn’t working. As more and more Chinese are realizing, the tragedy’s lessons are not only technological but also political. China’s high-speed rail system epitomizes the inherent flaws of authoritarian governance, not its strengths," it states.