TOKYO (AFP) – The president of major train operator West Japan Railway Co. was indicted Wednesday over a 2005 accident that killed 107 people in the worst Japanese rail disaster in four decades.
Prosecutors in the western city of Kobe filed a negligence charge against company president Masao Yamazaki, 66, who was the senior railway director at the time of the crash.
AFP/JIJI Press – Masao Yamazaki, president of West Japan RailwayIn the accident, a speeding commuter train jumped the tracks on a bend and smashed into an apartment tower during the morning rush hour, killing 106 passengers and the driver while injuring more than 550 people.
Prosecutors say that Yamazaki was in charge of safety in 1996, when the company rebuilt the tracks to sharpen the bend at the accident site in the western city of Amagasaki.
They charge that Yamazaki should have anticipated danger and that he failed to take proper safety precautions, such as installing a device that can stop a train that is travelling too fast.
The crash was Japan's worst train accident since 1963 when 161 people died in Yokohama when a freight train collided with a truck and was then hit by two passenger trains.
Survivors of the 2005 disaster and victims' relatives have also accused three former presidents, including Takeshi Kakiuchi, who headed the railway company at the time of accident, of being responsible.
But prosecutors stopped short of indicting them, citing a lack of evidence.
Shortly after the indictment was announced, Yamazaki said he would step down as company president.
"I deeply, deeply apologise," he said as he bowed at a press conference. "I will step down from the presidential post."
But he also said he would fight the negligence charge.
"I want to state my opinions during the trial and await the court's judgement," he said.
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