China blames high speed for train disaster
Chinese authorities on Tuesday blamed excessive speed for the nation's worst train crash in more than a decade, amid fears the death toll would climb past 70.
After the line to the seaside town of Qingdao -- the venue of the Olympics sailing competition -- was quickly reopened, the official Xinhua news agency cited an investigation panel saying "high speed" caused the accident.
The passenger train from Beijing that derailed and slammed into an oncoming train was travelling at 131 kilometres (81 miles) an hour, in excess of that section's 80-kilometre-an-hour limit, it said, citing the panel headed by the central government's work safety administration.
A local official at the scene of Monday's pre-dawn crash near Zibo city in eastern China's Shandong province also sought to blame the driver of the train from Beijing, believed to have been carrying more than 1,000 people.
"It's human error. The train was going way too fast," Zibo city spokesman Li Chenggang told AFP.
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