Usually I start my blog posts on a happy note, talking about all the activities I have been up to with my friends. However, as a result of recent incidents I feel it best to address the accident that made headlines in Taiwan first. As some of you might be aware, a train crashed inside a tunnel in the county just north of Taitung. It was carrying close to 500 people, most of which were family returning home to celebrate the Tomb Sweeping festival, a holiday in which you clean the tombs of your ancestors and return home, with their families. More and more information has been made public since the accident. The crash was not caused by any faults with the train line, a train I routinely (almost weekly) take to Taipei. Instead, investigators point to a construction crew’s negligence which resulted in a construction truck being parked on a slope without the brakes engaged. That truck then fell down the mountain and onto the track.
Travelers on the train recall the conductor blowing the horn of the train, but there was only 7 seconds and 850m between the train and the truck before the collision. I can’t believe that something that seems small such as parking in an area where parking is prohibited without the right permit or forgetting to engage the brakes, could lead to such loss of life. More than 50 people have lost their lives with many more in the hospital. Whole families were lost in the span of seconds.
The accident hit close to home in Taitung. In Taiwan, many of the young adults find work in Taipei, only returning to their home county for public holidays such as this past weekend. The nature of the holiday meant that the train was packed with many of the travelers standing and most with origins from Hualien and Taitung counties. It seems like most people I know here know at least one person who is injured or lost their life in the crash. I was lucky, I knew people on the train before and the train after the incident that were safe. The idea that the train ride I have come to enjoy between Taipei and Taitung could take a turn like this is very upsetting. I just keep thinking of the what ifs of the accident knowing that something like this could’ve happened at any time. It could’ve happened last week, last month, maybe even a little earlier in the day and impacted Sean’s train, or a little later and my other friend would’ve been in danger. Life is fleeting; you never know when you will pass on.
This horrific incident has brought to my attention that there are also some very big discrepancies between how to express condolences in these times. Following the death of the relatives of a homeroom teacher at my school, I wanted to do just that. I wrote up a letter, knowing that my pronunciation could and likely would hinder my being able to share my thoughts well. Before I planned to give the teacher my letter I decided to share it with my LET. Luckily I did. I learned that although my letter was written well in terms of the grammar and vocabulary used, in Taiwan people don’t talk about a death in one's family. In order to not make it worse and knowing that no words could ever make a death better, many Taiwanese people stay silent and allow that person to grieve in their own way and in their own time without bringing attention to it. I understand that. What will someone who barely knows you say “I am sorry for your loss. I will keep you and your family in my thoughts and prayers” (in Chinese) really help in the matter other than to bring up the loss again. Nevertheless, I plan to keep that teacher’s family in my prayers and she travels north for the services.
Please keep all the families in your prayers and for those who read this consider donating to the Taiwan Hualien Train Relief Fund for the victims still in the hospitals.
If you can donate here