JAPAN: The death toll from Monday's horrific train crash in Japan climbed to 73 last night as the authorities began a criminal investigation into the company which operated the line.
Bodies were still being pulled last night from the wreckage of the high-speed commuter train which derailed and crashed into an apartment block on Monday morning in Amagasaki, near Osaka, with nearly 600 passengers on board.
Some 200 people remain in hospital, some with serious injuries, while rescuers believe there may be survivors still trapped in the twisted wreckage along with at least a dozen bodies.
Japanese news reports say the president of West Japan Railway, Takeshi Kakiuchi, who visited the victims in hospital yesterday, will retire to take responsibility for Japan's worst train crash since 1963.
Police investigating charges of professional negligence raided the offices of the company yesterday for clues to the causes of the accident, but speculation continues to focus on the actions of the driver, Ryujiro Takami (23), who is believed to have died in the crash.
The rail company has released Mr Takami's employment history, which shows two reprimands as a conductor, including one for dozing on the job and one as a driver for overshooting a platform last year.
Passengers on Monday's train say it overran the previous stop before backing up and then proceeding at "unnatural speed" to Amagasaki, a busy junction.
A speedometer recovered from the crash site apparently shows the train was travelling at 30km/h over the speed limit for that section of the track.
Train drivers in Japan are under intense pressure to arrive and depart on time, especially to stations with connections to other lines. Overrunning a timetable by more than a minute means a reprimand and sometimes a pay cut.
Police suspect the driver may have pushed the train too fast in an effort to make up for lost time, derailing it at a bend in the line just before the station.
Engineers have also found markings on the line indicating that a rock or some other object may have contributed to the accident. The conductor of the train, who escaped injury, told the company that the driver instructed him to lie about the distance he overshot the platform at the previous station.
The company says the driver then ignored calls from the command centre to report his schedule. Survivors of the accident say the train was shaking violently before it derailed.
The detailed reports on the lead-up to the crash by the company suggest it is keen to lay the blame for the accident with the driver, but a wider investigation may focus on other contributing factors, including timetabling pressures and equipment failure.
There has already been some speculation in the Japanese press that a newer braking system might have prevented the train from reaching the speeds it did.