China's government fired three railway officials as it began an investigation into a deadly crash between two bullet trains that raised new safety concerns about the country's vaunted high-speed rail system.

　　中國兩輛動車嚴(yán)重追尾相撞事故引起人們對中國受到大肆吹捧的高速鐵路系統(tǒng)產(chǎn)生新的擔(dān)憂。在對事故展開調(diào)查伊始，中國政府將三名鐵路部門官員免職。

　　At least 35 people were killed and roughly 200 injured when a high-speed train traveling in the eastern province of Zhejiang slammed into the rear of another train Saturday, sending four train cars plunging off a 49-foot-high bridge and derailing two others. The Ministry of Railways said Sunday it appeared the first train had lost power after being struck by lightning, but that authorities were still examining the cause.

　　Associated Press據(jù)新華社報道，周六晚8點38分，兩列動車在溫州境內(nèi)追尾，四節(jié)車廂墜橋，另有兩節(jié)車廂脫軌，造成至少35人身亡，約200人受傷。上周六，在浙江省境內(nèi)行駛的兩列動車發(fā)生追尾事故，四節(jié)車廂從15米高的橋上墜落，另有兩節(jié)車廂脫軌，造成至少35人死亡、約200人受傷。鐵道部周日說，事故似乎是在前面行駛的列車遭雷擊失去動力所致，但有關(guān)部門仍在調(diào)查事故原因。

　　Rescue work continued through Sunday, with top Chinese leaders vowing that all efforts would be made to free any victims still locked inside the wreckage. The state-run Xinhua news agency said one young girl was found alive but unconscious late Sunday afternoon, some 21 hours after the crash. Service on 58 other trains in the region of the accident was temporarily halted Sunday amid the rescue work and efforts to repair the tracks.

　　救援工作到周日仍在持續(xù)，中國高層領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人誓言將竭盡全力救出廢墟中的被困者。國有媒體新華社說，事故發(fā)生后約21小時，周日下午晚些時候發(fā)現(xiàn)了一名幸存的小女孩，當(dāng)時她失去了知覺。由于進(jìn)行營救及修理鐵軌工作，事故發(fā)生地另外58趟列車周日暫停運行。

　　State media photos showed one train car standing almost vertical on the ground, with its upper end leaning against the edge of the bridge high above. A least one other car was visible lying tangled on the ground, with orange-clad rescue workers standing atop it. Witnesses described scenes of terror as people scrambled to get out of the devastated cars, with some jumping from the windows of the damaged train and at least one person using a Twitter-like microblogging service to plead for help, Xinhua reported.

　　官方媒體的圖片顯示，其中一節(jié)車廂幾乎與地面垂直，上端斜靠在高架橋橋梁上。另外至少有一節(jié)車廂掉落在橋下的地上，現(xiàn)場一片狼藉，身穿橘色制服的救援人員站在車廂上面。據(jù)新華社報道，目擊者稱事故現(xiàn)場情況嚴(yán)重，人們極力想逃出損毀的列車，有些人從受損列車的車窗跳出去，至少有一人發(fā)微博求救。

　　On Sunday night, the Railways Ministry said it had dismissed the chief, deputy chief and Communist Party secretary at the Shanghai Railway Bureau, which administers the railways in much of eastern China. The brief statement didn't say specifically what they were thought to have done wrong but said they would be investigated over the accident.

　　周日晚間，鐵道部說已將上海鐵路局正副局長和黨委書記撤職。上海鐵路局負(fù)責(zé)管理華東地區(qū)的大部分鐵路。鐵道部的簡短聲明未具體說明三人有何過錯，但說他們會因此次事故接受調(diào)查。

　　The government's initial account of the incident left several important issues unclear, including why the second train was allowed to proceed despite the first train's crippling malfunction. Modern rail systems are supposed to have fail-safe measures to prevent such occurrences. The government dispatched Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang to the scene to oversee rescue work and investigation. Xinhua paraphrased on Sunday night him as saying investigators “will find out the cause of the accident and those responsible will be seriously punished according to laws.”

　　政府最初的事故報告未對幾個重要問題做出解釋，其中包括在前面那輛車出現(xiàn)嚴(yán)重故障的情況下，后面那輛車為何還得以繼續(xù)行駛?，F(xiàn)代鐵路系統(tǒng)應(yīng)該有自動保險裝置防止此類事故發(fā)生。國務(wù)院副總理張德江被派往事故現(xiàn)場監(jiān)督營救和調(diào)查工作。新華社周日晚援引他的話說，調(diào)查人員會查明事故原因，依法依規(guī)嚴(yán)肅處理相關(guān)責(zé)任人員。

　　The accident is the latest in a series of recent problems that have plagued the high-speed rail system.

　　中國高鐵系統(tǒng)最近出現(xiàn)了一系列問題，此次事故是最新的一起。

　　China's is the world's largest such network, with an estimated total cost of nearly $300 billion and plans for 16,000 kilometers of track by 2020.

　　中國高鐵是世界最大的高鐵網(wǎng)絡(luò)，建設(shè)總成本近3,000億美元，計劃到2020年高速鐵路達(dá)到1.6萬公里。

　　The government has trumpeted the project as a symbol of rapid technological development, with the Railways Ministry recently boasting that its technology is superior to that of Japan's famous Shinkansen. Premier Wen Jiabao helped mark the opening of the system's prized Beijing-Shanghai line late last month on the eve of the ruling Communist Party's 90th birthday.

　　Europoean Pressphoto Agency圖為事故發(fā)生后，救援人員在列車車廂殘骸上作業(yè)。政府宣稱這項工程是快速科技發(fā)展的標(biāo)志，鐵道部最近夸口說中國的技術(shù)優(yōu)于日本聞名的新干線技術(shù)。上個月，執(zhí)政黨中國共產(chǎn)黨建黨90周年紀(jì)念前夕，國務(wù)院總理溫家寶出席了備受重視的京滬高鐵的開通儀式。

　　Backers say the system is bringing economic benefit by reducing travel times between cities. Critics argue that the project has been wasteful and overly expensive, and many Chinese complain that high ticket prices aren't suited to average people.

　　支持者說高鐵系統(tǒng)通過減少城際的旅行時間帶來了經(jīng)濟(jì)利益。批評者則認(rèn)為，高鐵項目鋪張浪費、過于昂貴，許多中國民眾表示不滿，認(rèn)為高票價不適合普通人。

　　In February, Railways Minister Liu Zhijun, who had championed the project, was fired amid a major corruption investigation. His successor, Sheng Guangzu, has scaled back expansion plans to focus on projects already under way, offered lower ticket prices, and slowed the top speeds on the network to 300 kilometers an hour from 350 or higher─undercutting what had been a source of pride for the system's backers.

　　今年2月，曾支持該項目的鐵道部部長劉志軍在一起貪腐大調(diào)查中被撤職。他的繼任者盛光祖縮小了高鐵擴(kuò)張計劃，將重點放到已經(jīng)在建的項目上；此外，還下調(diào)了京滬高鐵的票價，并將最高時速從350公里甚至更高降至300公里，削弱了這個令高鐵支持者感到驕傲的項目。

　　This month has seen service on the Beijing-Shanghai line suspended at least three times because of technical problems. The Railways Ministry spokesman publicly apologized for the mishaps, blaming some of the delays on severe lightning.

　　本月，京滬高鐵至少由于技術(shù)問題而停運了三次。鐵道部發(fā)言人就停運公開道歉，將部分延誤歸咎于嚴(yán)重雷雨天氣。

　　Much of the technology for China's bullet trains was acquired over the past decade from foreign train producers including Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., Siemens AG and Alstom SA that pioneered high-speed rail. It wasn't immediately clear which, if any, of those companies were involved in producing the trains in Saturday's accident.

　　中國高鐵技術(shù)大部分是過去10年從外國火車制造商那里買來的，其中包括率先開發(fā)出高鐵技術(shù)的川崎重工業(yè)(Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd.)、西門子(Siemens AG)和阿爾斯通(Alstom SA)。目前尚不清楚上述公司是否參與生產(chǎn)了上周六發(fā)生事故的列車；如果是，又是哪些公司參與了生產(chǎn)。

　　China's government has said its state-owned train producers advanced the technology, including by making the trains go faster─a move that some train-industry experts warned could be dangerous. There was no initial indication that this issue was a factor in Saturday's accident. Experts said high-speed trains in the area of the accident generally travel well below top speeds because the rail line snakes through hilly terrain.

　　上周六，在浙江省境內(nèi)行駛的兩列動車發(fā)生追尾事故，四節(jié)車廂從15米高的橋上墜落，另有兩節(jié)車廂脫軌，造成至少35人死亡、約200人受傷。中國政府一直說，中國國有火車制造商開發(fā)出了高鐵技術(shù)，包括提高了列車的運行速度；而據(jù)一些鐵路行業(yè)專家警告說，提高運行速度的做法可能是危險的。目前沒有跡象顯示速度是導(dǎo)致上周六事故的一個原因。專家們說，由于事故發(fā)生地區(qū)的鐵路軌道穿行于丘陵地帶，那里的高鐵運行速度通常遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)低于最高時速。

　　Saturday's incident is among China's worst train accidents in years. In 2008, a high-speed train jumped its tracks and slammed into another train in Shandong province, killing more than 70 people and injuring hundreds of others. That was the worst accident since 1997, when a collision killed more than 100 people.

　　上周六的事故是多年來中國最嚴(yán)重的火車事故之一。2008年，山東省一列高速列車脫軌，與另外一列列車相撞，造成70多人死亡，另有數(shù)百人受傷。那起事故是1997年以來最嚴(yán)重的火車事故，1997年的一次列車相撞事件造成100多人死亡。

　　The latest accident occurred at 8:38 p.m. local time near the city of Wenzhou, when train D301 from Beijing collided with train D3115 traveling from the Zhejiang provincial capital of Hangzhou, the government said. It wasn't clear how fast D301 was traveling, nor how long D3115 had been stalled, though Xinhua quoted one passenger saying it had been motionless for more than 20 minutes and had just started moving again when struck.

　　政府說，上周六的事故發(fā)生于當(dāng)?shù)貢r間晚上8點38分，事故地點是在溫州市附近，當(dāng)時從北京始發(fā)的D301次列車與從浙江省會杭州市始發(fā)的D3115次列車相撞。不清楚D301次列車當(dāng)時的運行速度是多少，也不清楚D3115次列車停了多長時間，不過新華社援引一位旅客的話報導(dǎo)說，有20多分鐘都沒有動，剛剛重新開車就撞上了。

　　An executive at one of the biggest foreign suppliers of high-speed train technology to China said it is unusual, though not unprecedented, for high-speed trains to be halted by lightning. He also said the accident suggested a serious deficiency in the rail network's 'automatic train stop' or ATS system, a critical backup measure that is supposed to halt trains under certain situations such as when a rail line is obstructed.

　　中國最大的外國高鐵技術(shù)供應(yīng)商之一的一位高管說，高鐵列車因雷擊停車很少見，不過也并不是前所未有的。他還說，這起事故顯示了鐵路網(wǎng)絡(luò)自動停車系統(tǒng)的嚴(yán)重不足。自動停車系統(tǒng)是一種重要的備用裝置，可以在某些情況下停車，比如軌道上有障礙物。

　　“Obviously, ATS was not functioning properly,” said the executive. “It makes me not want to ride high-speed trains in China─not until they get to the bottom of what happened in Wenzhou,” he said.

　　這位高管說，顯然，自動停車系統(tǒng)當(dāng)時沒有正常運轉(zhuǎn)。這讓我不想在中國乘坐高鐵，直到他們弄清楚溫州事故的原因為止。

　　Many Chinese voiced similar concerns on Sina Weibo, the most popular of China's Twitter-like microblogging sites.

　　很多中國民眾在中國人氣最高的微博網(wǎng)站新浪微博上表達(dá)了類似的擔(dān)憂。

　　One user, using the name Connie_Kangli, said she would “never take D trains in the future again, unless I have no other alternatives and am forced to take one.” Another noted the spate of recent malfunctions and questioned the system's technology. “Officials always assured us that engineers working on high-speed rail technology are the best in China, and that the technology they came up with was the most advanced.”

　　一位網(wǎng)名為Connie_Kangli的用戶說，不到萬不得已我絕不坐動車！另外一位用戶則指出了最近一系列的故障，并質(zhì)疑高鐵技術(shù)。這位用戶說，官員們總是向我們保證，負(fù)責(zé)高鐵技術(shù)的工程師是中國最好的，他們拿出來的高鐵技術(shù)也是最先進(jìn)的。