[Tom Bombadil]

@Jinto

The trains that are involved in the tragical accident is not really "high speed". Quote from BBC:

"D" trains are the first generation of bullet trains in China, with an average speed of just short of 100mph (160km/h).

They run on regular tracks, comparing the high speed trains (> 300km/h), like the Beijing-Shanghai one, which run on special tracks. Of course, you still have an valid point on those trains.

@SaintessHeart
why copypasta something YOU don't understand, and twist it to fits your own biased narrative? Are you claiming that China has no technology to run trains up to 160 km/h?

The problem as far as we see, there is either a big hole in the administrative system or there was a huge human error, and the damn government tries to cover everything up.

Although there are technological reasons involved in this incident (like why the first train lost its power, the official reason is the thunder storm, which many people are questioning), but most of the clue points to the a human error. The first train has stopped on its track for some time. There is no reason why the second train was not informed, why all signals fails to prevent such an tragedy. The captain of the second train died in the incident, chest pierced by something.

The damn government tries to cover up everything. All of the incident was chalked up to the thunderstorm, the head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau was fired before anything was clear (scrape goat). There are also rumor that the propaganda office instructed that all the news media
to focus on the "heroic aspect of the rescue", and less on the cause of the incident. There is also photos showing evidence that the government officials who are "on the spot to command the rescue operation" actually dined at the top restaurant in the nearby city. It bring out the most ugly side of the government, which is disgusting.

Central China Television "currently, many of the injured do not have enough cash, so most of the medical fees are paid by the hospital...". WTF!!!!!!

Edit: someone posted the following in Baidu, which I think it is most likely the truth. Spoiler it because it is in Chinese.

Spoiler for reason:

首先是雷击造成CTC系统大面积红光带。意思就是，计算机表示，我病了，不能管车了，你们车辆 别开了。
然后呢，前一阵子的京沪高铁雷击停运给铁路部门造成了很大压力，于是他们表示，这不行啊，再搞个全线停车媒 体不骂翻天吗？（CTCS-2跟以往的闭塞方法不同，不仅仅依靠轨道信号，还需要车载的应答系统等无线信号，遭到雷击破坏的可能性较高 ）不行，这车必须开，转入非常站控。
再然后，我们的南站发令了，D3115永嘉发车，遇到红灯不停，目视20KM/h限速。也就是**说了，您遇到红灯只管往前开，注意点就行！同时为了红灯开车不被计算机阻挠，D3115 的ATP部分关闭，应答机停止工作。也就是D3115开隐身了！它不再向其它列车报告自己的位 置。
然后，D301也出来了……不过CTCS已经损坏，所以D301上面一路白灯无码。站上表示没问题，咱继续 开！相当于司机给**说：我眼睛出问题了，看不到前车啊！**说：没事，我给你盯着！
然后，D3115准备过桥，同时有乘客拉下了紧急制动。（暂时不知道为什么）。
D3115反应，接触网没电了，南站回应，降弓。
然后的事情，大家都知道了。

a comment replying to the above post

“然后，D3115准备过桥，同时有乘客拉下了紧急制动。（暂时不知道为什么）。”

因为追尾了。

D301 轧着 D3115 的尾车飞上天，捎带着撞断了接触网，当然断电了；
而 D3115 因完整性被破坏自动起非常，但司机不知情，以为乘客拉了紧急制动。

优酷有录像，最后两秒钟可以看到很大的电弧，应该是 D301 飞出去时撞断接触网的瞬间。

source: http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1152140163?pn=1

Basically, almost all the safety precautions are ignored. The computer system was overridden. The previous incident on the Shanghai-beijing line by another thunderstorm caused an up-roar in China, so they were under a lot of pressure to run the trains even if the computer says no.