Eighteen railway officials will be dismissed, and the conductor that survived the accident will face criminal charges over the train collision on April 11, China News Service reported yesterday.

The Ministry of Railways has promulgated a document, listing the 36 people responsible for the accident; it also states they will be punished.

The director and the party secretary from the Nanchang Railway Administration will be registered as "administration at fault". The general manager of Guangzhou Railway Group and the officials in charge of engineering and electricity are ordered to write self-criticisms.

At 9:32am on April 11 the T159 train was enroute to Guangzhou City in southern Guangdong Province from from Qingdao City in eastern China's Shandong Province. It arrived at the section between the Linzhai and Dongshui stations on a line that links Beijing with Kowloon in Hong Kong. However, the conductor didn't double check the malfunctioning signal light and merely assumed there was no other trains on the track ahead.

The T159 train is owned by the Nanchang Railway Administration, and the railway is operated by the Guangzhou Railway Group.

The train continued forward at a speed of 48 kilometers per hour, and slammed into the rear of train 1017 that was enroute to Shantou City in Guangdong from Wuchang City in central China's Hubei Province. The collision killed two railway workers instantly and injured 18 passengers. Train 1017's last four cars derailed, and the locomotive of train T159 was badly damaged.

One of the two conductors on train T159 was also found sleeping when the accident happened, violating the rule of vigilance and of being weary of any malfunctions.

(Shanghai Daily April 19, 2006)