Advance of Safety in Japanese Railways; Teachings from Accidents and R/D of New Safety Technologies

Abstract

The safety of Japanese railway system is very high, only 0.6 accidents occurs every million km-train-run. Such high safety level have been achieved by teachings from various previous accidents. In this paper the author introduces the history of previous serious accidents and the countermeasures against them, such as the developments and practical uses of new safety technologies. And then establishment of the governmental accident investigation organization in Japan and the outline of it are introduced with some examples of its investigation results and the countermeasures especially concerning condition monitoring.