OSAKA (Kyodo) West Japan Railway Co. sacked two executives Friday over their questionable handling of the investigative process into the deadly 2005 Amagasaki train derailment.
Although the departures of board member and former President Masao Yamazaki and current Vice President Ryuichiro Tsuchiya were termed resignations, they are seen as effective dismissals by JR West.
Yamazaki, who was JR West president from February 2006 to last August, obtained a draft government report on the accident in Hyogo Prefecture before its release and paid experts to give their opinions as witnesses at a public hearing on the derailment. Tsuchiya led operations to collect information on the investigative process.
Late last month, JR West drew the public's ire due to revelations that Koichi Yamaguchi, a member of the government's Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission, handed over the draft report to JR West and called for deleting a clause in it considered disadvantageous to the carrier, in response to Yamazaki's repeated requests.
The public outcry against the railway intensified following its admission that it had asked four transport experts to give their opinions as witnesses at the public hearing in 2007 on the cause of the accident, which claimed 107 lives, and paid cash to two of them.
JR West also said its president, Takayuki Sasaki, reported more details of its questionable handling of the investigation to Seiji Maehara, minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism.