Despite accident, China’s high-speed trains still have one of the best safety records

There was a recent tragic accident on July 23, 2011, 40 lives were killed and 192 were injured in a rainstorm which disabled the signaling equipment of the high speed trains. Despite this big accident, China still has one of the safest high speed train records in the world. Since 2009, these high speed trains have been transporting 1.8 billion passengers to their destinations. Even Arnold I. Barnett, who is on of the world’s best aviation (aircraft designing), says that the high speed trains in China are around the same risk percentages as the world’s safest airlines. But, China’s high speed train system is still 6-20 times as deadly per million registered vehicles as in the United States. Which really isn’t that much considering how long the US subway system has been around compared to the newer high speed train system that China has adapted (25 year difference.)

New York Times Article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/24/business/global/despite-a-deadly-crash-rail-system-has-good-safety-record.html?_r=0