One person died and 30 were injured when an express train crashed into a truck at a level crossing in Japan today.
The accident on a busy line from Yokohama to Tokyo derailed the front three carriages and smashed the window of the overturned driver’s cab after the train crashed at 75mph.
The truck burst into flames and spewed its cargo of hundreds of oranges and lemons alongside the tracks.
According to the Keikyu train company operating the service, the driver said he had applied the emergency brake but too late to prevent the collision.
The crash in Yokohama just before noon is a rare setback for Japan’s famously reliable railways.
‘Emergency crews took 30 injured people into care. Of those, two had sustained serious injuries,’ a fire department official said.
‘Of those severely injured, the hospital has confirmed the death of one person,’ they told reporters at the scene. The victim was said to be a man in his 60s.
The truck driver was pulled out of the debris and taken to a nearby hospital, where he was in serious condition, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.
Around 500 people were on board when the train collided and the company is now investigating the accident.
‘The maximum speed there is set at 75mph and we believe the train was travelling as fast as that,’ said a Keikyu spokesman, who declined to be named.
