OSAKA, Feb. 12 (Xinhua)--At least 16 people were injured on Tuesday after a passenger train derailed following a crash between the train and a truck near a station in the western Japanese city of Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture, local press reported.
The accident happened at around 4:00 p.m. local time after the passenger train and the truck collided at a level crossing near the Arai Station in the city on Sanyo Electric Railway Line, and two carriages of the train derailed, according to the country's public broadcaster Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK).
The report said 16 people, one with critical injuries, were carried to local hospitals adding that those carried were including passengers and both drivers of the train and the truck.
Television images also showed the first and second carriages of the train severely hitting the platform at the station, located some 100 meters southeast form the crossing, as well as electric poles nearby struck down.
The report cited transport officials as saying that the railway' s alarm signaling system to detect obstacle around the level crossing has worked normally while local police are investigating the cause of the accident.
The train was heading to Osaka-Umeda Station from Himeji Station in western Hyogo. Since the accident, the railway operator has been suspending the passenger service in some sections on the line.
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