[People News] In the early morning of November 27 Beijing time, China’s railway system suffered two consecutive serious incidents in which trains struck workers performing maintenance on the tracks. A total of 13 people were killed and 2 injured, triggering public concern over the safety management of railway line maintenance.

According to Jimu News, at 12:35 a.m. on the 27th, test train No. 55537, which was carrying seismic detection equipment, struck construction workers who had entered the track while the train was passing a curve inside Luoyangzhen Station in Kunming. Eleven people were killed and two injured. Just minutes earlier (12:27 a.m. on the 27th), train No. 21016 on the Baocheng Railway struck and killed two maintenance workers who were working on the tracks in the Deyang section of Sichuan; both died at the scene.

In recent years, multiple incidents involving collisions between trains and track maintenance workers have occurred within China’s railway system.

According to Chinese mainland media reports, on May 30, the day before the Dragon Boat Festival, a railway bridge collapsed along the G348 line at the Madao Railway Bridge section in Xichang City, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan. A red freight truck was crushed by the collapsed bridge. A traffic police officer at the scene said the driver was unharmed, but the cause of the incident was unclear. Witness Mr. Yu said it was likely that the truck exceeded the height limit and struck the bridge deck, causing the deck to shift and fall onto the truck. Videos circulating online showed a height limit sign of 4.2 meters on the railway bridge. Many local residents said this section had previously seen accidents where trucks scraped the underside of the bridge.

On May 12, a train struck and killed a 60-year-old man in Guanmenyan Village, Yongding District, Zhangjiajie, Hunan. He became the 19th victim on this segment of the railway. Just one month earlier, a 15-year-old disabled “left-behind” girl was struck and killed on the same section of track. Villagers said that the Jiao–Liu Railway segment passing through the village has had repeated fatal train-person collisions over many years, with victims including both local villagers and outsiders. Villagers expressed a desire to relocate, but the village committee said residential land quotas cannot be changed at will.

The Jiao–Liu Railway is a mountain railway that runs through the transitional zone between China’s second and third topographical steps. Its routing reflects the “rely on mountains and remain concealed” principles of the Third Front Construction era. Due to mountainous terrain, within just 1.5 kilometers of Songjiawan Village, the railway includes four curved bends and two mountain tunnels. Villagers believe these are key reasons for frequent train-person collisions: the curves and surrounding trees obstruct visibility, and since train whistles are sounded inconsistently, by the time people notice an approaching train, it is often already very close. With trains moving at high speed, the time available for people to evade is very short.

At railway marker K952+480 near Group 3 of Songjiawan Village, there is a bend about 100 meters long. Villagers recall that at least eight people have been killed at this spot alone, and therefore refer to it as the “deadly bend.”

The house of villager Song Fuchu sits right beside the “deadly bend.” Coal particles the size of a thumbnail frequently fall at his doorstep. In earlier years, train vibrations were so strong that tiles were often shaken loose from his roof. He has personally witnessed multiple villagers killed at the bend. His wife’s younger brother was also killed there—he was sitting by the bend cooling off in the summer, and was struck by a train when he stood up.

Many village homes sit immediately beside both sides of the railway. Some houses have their front doors facing directly onto the tracks. To leave home, residents must cross the rails, creating a village layout in which dwellings and the railway coexist closely. In addition, most villagers live at the foot of the mountain while nearly half of the farmland is on the mountainside; some accidents occurred while villagers were making the trip between them. Although the village has an underpass for pedestrians and vehicles, it is far away, and villagers feel it is quicker to simply step onto the tracks and cross.

Some netizens pointed out that this “deadly bend” has existed for decades, yet authorities have never taken action to resolve the problem, showing that officials have never placed any value on the lives of ordinary people. △