KOBE (Kyodo) A Kobe inquest committee said Thursday it has recommended that three former presidents of West Japan Railway Co. be charged over a 2005 train derailment that killed 107 people, deeming an earlier decision by prosecutors not to indict them inappropriate.
The Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution in Kobe made a decision dated Oct. 7 that prosecutors should press charges against Masataka Ide, 74, Shojiro Nanya, 68, and Takeshi Kakiuchi, 65, who have all headed JR West.
Kakiuchi was president at the time the train jumped the tracks and slammed into a high-rise, Nanya was chairman and Ide was adviser.
The three should be held responsible for failing to ensure that an automatic train stop system, which could have prevented the accident, was installed at the curve where the crash took place, according to the inquest panel made up of 11 citizens selected by lot.
Prosecutors will reinvestigate the case and decide whether to bring charges in three months' time.
Ex-JR West President Masao Yamazaki, 66, was charged in July over the accident.
The speeding Fukuchiyama Line train jumped the curve on the morning of April 25, 2005, in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, killing 106 passengers and the driver and leaving more than 500 others hurt.