Probe finds safety violations behind fatal railway accident in SW China

BEIJING, July 3 (Xinhua) -- China's railway regulator said Friday that safety violations and management failures resulted in a railway accident in southwest China's Yunnan Province last year that claimed the lives of 11 people and injured two.

The accident occurred on Nov. 27, 2025, at Luoyangzhen Station in Kunming, the provincial capital, when an inspection train operated by China Railway Kunming Group Co., Ltd. struck railway maintenance workers who had entered a work area without proper authorization, according to an investigation report released by the National Railway Administration.

The accident caused direct economic losses of 14.52 million yuan (about 2.13 million U.S. dollars), the report said.

The report said the site supervisor ordered the work to begin in violation of safety rules, before a dispatch order approving the operation had been issued. It also found that a station liaison officer failed to properly warn workers to clear the track before the train passed through on its scheduled run.

Investigators cited weak checks on construction plans, poor coordination, repeated safety violations, failures in on-site protection, lax corporate safety management and inadequate industry supervision.

The investigation found China Railway Kunming Group and related units responsible for the accident and recommended administrative penalties. The station liaison officer has been transferred to judicial authorities.

Problems involving public officials were handed over to disciplinary and supervisory authorities, and 34 people from responsible organizations were given Party disciplinary or administrative sanctions, the report said.