The was a railway accident that occurred in

Shigaraki was a town located in Kōka District, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Population As of 2004, the town had an estimated population of 13,885 and a density of 84.92 persons per km2. The total area is 163.5 km2. History On October 1, 2004, Shiga ...

(now

Koka KOKA (980 Kilohertz, kHz, "KOKA 980 AM, 93.3 FM") is an American radio station city of license, licensed to Shreveport, Louisiana. The station is broadcasting an Urban contemporary gospel, urban gospel format. The station serves the Shreveport� ...

Shiga Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan in the Kansai region of Honshu. Shiga Prefecture has a population of 1,398,972 as of 1 February 2025 and has a geographic area of . Shiga Prefecture borders Fukui Prefecture to the north, Gifu Prefecture to th ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

on May 14, 1991. A Shigaraki Kōgen Railway (SKR) train and a

West Japan Railway Company , also referred to as , is one of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) companies and operates in western Honshu. It has its headquarters in Kita-ku, Osaka. It is listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange, is a constituent of the TOPIX Large70 index, ...

(JR West) train collided head-on, killing 42 people and injuring 614 others. Until the

Amagasaki derailment The occurred in Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, on 25 April 2005 at 09:19 local time, just after the local rush hour. It occurred when a seven-car commuter train came off the tracks on West Japan Railway Company's (JR West) Fukuchiyama Lin ...

in 2005, this was the deadliest railway disaster in Japan since the

Yokohama rail crash The occurred on November 9, 1963, between Tsurumi Station, Tsurumi and Shin-Koyasu Station, Shin-Koyasu stations on the Tōkaidō Main Line in Yokohama, Japan, about south of Tokyo, when two passenger trains collided with a derailed freight tr ...

of 1963, which killed 161 people.

Accident

The accident happened at 10:35 (1:35

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

) local time on May 14, 1991, on the SKR Shigaraki Line between Onotani Signal Station and Shigarakigūshi. A special JR West rapid service train (501D) from

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

bound for

had entered the Shigaraki Line at Kibukawa Station from the

Kusatsu Line The is a railway line in western Japan operated by West Japan Railway Company (JR West). It connects Tsuge on the Kansai Main Line with Kusatsu on the Biwako Line (Tōkaidō Main Line). Overview Kusatsu line mainly runs through area around ...

, transporting 716 passengers to the World Ceramic Festival that was being held in

at the time. Going in the opposite direction, an SKR local train (534D) had left Shigaraki and headed for Kibukawa, despite a red signal. The was the only point on the single-track line where two trains can safely pass, but the JR West train had already gone past that signal station, as it was given a green signal despite the approaching SKR train. The signal station has been deactivated since the disaster.

Causes

The primary causes of the accidents were SKR officials allowing the eastbound SKR train to pass red signals and the failed

interlocking In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. In North America, a set of signalling appliances and tracks inte ...

that allowed the westbound JR West train to advance past Onotani Signal Station. Both SKR and JR West had independently made unauthorized modification to the signal system, which led to the confusion that prompted the SKR staff to send a train against a red signal, and the faulty wiring that showed the JR West train a green signal, when the approaching SKR train should have turned the signal to red.

Aftermath

Memorial_of_Shigaraki_Kohgen_Railway_train_collision_disaster_20201115_01

SKR suspended passenger service while the

and

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

conducted investigations, and service did not reopen until December 1991. When service resumed, the use of Onotani Signal Station as a passing point was discontinued. As a result, service frequency was reduced from twice an hour to once an hour, with operation in only one direction at any time. In 1999, the two companies have had a complaint set against them for having

negligence Negligence ( Lat. ''negligentia'') is a failure to exercise appropriate care expected to be exercised in similar circumstances. Within the scope of tort law, negligence pertains to harm caused by the violation of a duty of care through a neg ...

for the victims of the train disaster. In the same year, the two companies were put on trial in the

Ōtsu 270px, Ōtsu City Hall is the capital city of Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 343,991 in 153,458 households and a population density of 740 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . History Ōtsu is ...

District Court. In 2002, in the

Osaka is a Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan, designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the List of cities in Japan, third-most populous city in J ...

High Court, the

was found guilty of negligence. The West Japan Railway Company however did not appeal against the verdict of the High Court. JR West discontinued through train operations to the Shigaraki Line, while other

Japan Railways Group The Japan Railways Group, commonly known as the or simply JR, is a network of railway companies in Japan formed after the Corporate spin-off, division and privatization of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) on April 1, 1987. ...

companies similarly discontinued non-regular through train operations to private and Third Sector railway lines. The World Ceramic Festival, which was to continue until May 26, was cancelled the day following the accident.

References

* * {{Railway accidents and incidents in Japan Train collisions in Japan Railway accidents in 1991 1991 in Japan Rail transport in Shiga Prefecture Railway accidents involving a signal passed at danger May 1991 in Asia 1991 disasters in Japan

Accident

Causes

Aftermath

See also

References