Railroad operations back to normal after accident

By Cho Jae-hyon

Railroad operations came to a halt for nearly six hours at Uiwang Station in Gyeonggi Province after a piece of drilling equipment fell onto the tracks Monday, the Korea Railroad Corp. (Korail) said.

Korail said it has cleared the 20-meter drilling equipment which fell across three of the four tracks at 4:25 a.m near Uiwang Station, south of Seoul, putting railroad operations back to normal.

It is the latest in a series of accidents involving Korail in recent months.

There were no casualties and property damage was minimal as no trains were running at the time. Still, many people had to use buses or other forms of transportation in the morning since only one track was open.

“The damaged equipment has been removed and trains have been running on schedule from late in the morning,” a Korail official said.

Railroad authorities have yet to figure out the exact cause of the collapse of the equipment, which was turned off and being moved at the time of the accident.