Lock System May Have Led To Accident: Michael Tien

Roundtable lawmaker Michael Tien said on Wednesday that he believes a lock system to prevent tracks from switching directions may have caused a train to derail.

Eight people were injured when three carriages in the middle of the train veered off the tracks at a diversion point at rush hour on Tuesday morning.

Tien, the former chairman of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation which used to operate the line, says he still has confidence in the MTR Corporation.

"Something as unprecedented [as this] we shouldn't jump to the conclusion that the whole system is unsafe because it has never happened before," Tien said.

It should be a "unique, isolated situation".

"That is why they need such a long time to come to a conclusion," Tien said.

The MTR has said there were at least three small cracks on the track.

But it said it remains to be seen whether they had been there prior to the derailment, or whether they had been caused by the incident.