A transport ministry panel on Monday began a full-scale probe into the first-ever derailment of a bullet train over the weekend in Niigata Prefecture during a series of powerful earthquakes.
Four members of the Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry visited the site near JR Nagaoka Station where the 10-car Toki No. 325 on the Joetsu Shinkansen Line, bound for Niigata from Tokyo, derailed Saturday evening.
Masayuki Miyamoto, a professor in the engineering department at Meisei University and one of the commission members, said the rails moved sideways due to the impact of the temblors, and that caused some of the train's cars to derail.