Crash Footage Shows Train Driver Reacted 4 Seconds After Seeing Truck

Dashcam video from the 408 Taroko train sheds new light on the final moments of last Friday”s crash. Footage released Tuesday shows that the train driver had reacted four seconds after spotting the crane truck on the tracks. Investigators say that even if the driver had slammed the brakes the moment he saw the truck, it would have been too late to avert disaster.. . Exiting the tunnel, the train emerges into daylight, barreling along the curve toward the truck on the tracks. Within four seconds, the Taroko Express crashes into it and slams into the left side of the tunnel wall. This is footage from the train”s dashcam.. . Young Hong-tsu. Transportation Safety Board. We have images at the 45-, 46- and 47-second mark and then it stops. But over here on the ATP system, it shows the brake was engaged. That”s to say, they used the manual brake to stop the Taroko Express from moving forward.. . On Friday morning, the train exited Renhe Tunnel at the 9:28:38.5 mark. Less than five seconds later, the automatic train protection system registered an emergency brake engagement. One second after the brakes were activated, the train collided with the truck and later slammed against the side of Qingshui Tunnel. The last record on the system log shows the train was moving at 121 kilometers per hour. . . Young Hong-tsu. Transportation Safety Board. The front of the construction vehicle, the engine and the crane were broken apart. Everything but the chassis was pushed inside the tunnel in front of Car 8 of the train.. . Officials also spoke on how the construction vehicle ended up on the tracks. The Transportation Safety Board has roughly mapped out the path of the truck, which was owned by Yi Hsiang Industry. The vehicle slid down a sloping path at the construction site, making a hairpin turn around an excavator. It continued sliding downward before eventually falling off the path into the vegetation below, and landing on the train tracks. A little more than minute later, the Taroko Express crashed into it.. . Lee Kang. Transportation Safety Board. The truck kind of rolled down the hill. But as we mentioned just now, if you look at the scene, there were other construction vehicles there. There wasn”t just one vehicle in operation. That is to say, there wasn”t just one vehicle at the site. From the images, you can see that construction had not been halted at the site.. . The 350-ton train collided against the 7.5-ton truck before crashing at high speed against into the Qingshui Tunnel, resulting in the tremendous loss of life. The investigation continues into why the truck was able to roll down the slope.