Police investigating Japan's worst rail crash in four decades searched the offices of the train's owner today as the death toll rose to 81.
Investigations are focusing on the speed the packed train was travelling when it jumped the tracks on the outskirts of the western city of Osaka and smashed into an apartment building just after rush hour yesterday morning.
JR West Chairman Shojiro Nanya
Police who raided the offices of West Japan Railway Co. (JR West) said they were investigating for possible professional negligence leading to death.
JR West President Takeshi Kakiuchi will resign to take responsibility for the disaster, in which another 456 people were injured, Kyodo news agency reported.
At the accident scene, workers are using heavy machinery to take apart one of the cars, while safety investigators began examining the site.
Many people had spent the previous day making the rounds of local hospitals looking for friends or relatives.
Three people were pulled alive from the wreckage earlier today, but police said it was not clear if anyone was still trapped in the wreckage.
"I am filled with remorse that so many people were killed," JR West Chairman Shojiro Nanya told reporters while visiting the temporary morgue. "We will make every effort to take steps regarding those who lost their lives and their families."
Investigators said the cause of the crash was still unclear, but survivors among the some 580 passengers, as well as the train's conductor, said they believed the train was going faster than normal after falling behind schedule.
The train had overshot the previous station by about 130 feet and had to reverse back to the platform.
The driver, a 23-year-old man with 11 months experience, was pulled from the wreckage this morning, but it was not clear if he was alive, according to reports.
The driver also over-shot a station by 330 feet last June, railway officials said.
It was the worst train accident in Japan since 1963 when about 160 people were killed in a train collision at Yokohama, near Tokyo, and the worst since Japan's rail network was privatised in 1987.