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Wenzhou train collision happened on 23 July 2011. It had been one of the most

devastating train tragedies in the world. Casualty figure is not the only issue people

concerned about; it is the Chinese reactions towards the train incident.

According to [1], two high-speed trains collided on the Yongtaiwen railway line bear

Wenzhou in eastern China, killed 40 and injured at least 192. The two trains derailed

each other, causing four cars fell off the viaduct. The accident had a deep influence

on the high-speed railway development in China. The public was unwilling to take

high-speed rail as their confidence in the railway system was disintegrated.

Construction of other high-speed rail lines had to be halted until the investigation

was over. Speeds on the high-speed rail lines had to be reduced. This terrific incident

had brought discredit to the China, but Chinese reactions did not bring up its

reputation.

At the very beginning, lightning was said to be one of the causes to this accident.

Xinhua [2] had reported that one of the trains lost power after it was hit by the

lightning. However, more and more confusion emerged in the public. Weather

conditions should be considered when building the railway, as the technology is

well-developed nowadays. It implied that the emergency plan and shut-down

processes failed to function or did not even exist. If the trains had stopped, there

would be no casualties.

Some of the media blamed the train driver as the fault of the accident. They revealed

that the train drivers had only ten days training courses. As they were lack of

experience, they might have a poor management on the unexpected incidents. On

the other hand, some people argued that the train drivers were responsible enough

because they tried their very best to speed down the train. One of the drivers

survived in the accident and he was a key witness. He had not showed up to explain

how the crash happened. Quite a number of people suspected that the Ministry of

Railway restricted access of the driver in order to cover up the truth; hence, using

him to be a scapegoat [3].

8 hours after the accident, the government ministry announced to stop the rescue

because there was no sign of life and then buried the train compartments. People

were furious that human lives were being unvalued and disrespected as more lives

could be saved. It was too early to clear out the railway for trains to run again when

comparing against the carefulness and humanitarianism of similar rescue elsewhere

around the world. As mentioned in [4], it was believed that the government was

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trying to cover up the details behind, which may be related to high-speed railway

project. Burying the train compartments would leave no evidence.