The crash of two Chinese bullet trains is, first and foremost, a human tragedy. The ordeal of Xiang Weiyi, a two-year-old girl who lay for 21 hours in the twisted wreckage near the corpses of her parents, has transfixed China’s public.
So has the story of Yang Feng, who lost his seven-month pregnant wife and three other relatives in the collision and has questioned the accuracy of the official death toll, at least 39, according to state media reports.
As families grieve and demand answers beyond the official explanation that lightning caused the crash, there are many in the railway industry who are quietly shaking their heads and whispering that they saw this coming.