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April 7 (UPI) -- Newly released video footage from the front of a train shows the dramatic moments when it crashed in Taiwan last week and killed dozens of people. Officials released the footage of the crash, which derailed some of the cars near a tunnel in Hualien County on Friday. About 500 passengers and crew were aboard the train and 50 were killed.
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The video gives a view of the conductors in the front car as the train approaches a truck, and shows they had only seconds to react while traveling at 75 miles per hour. The passenger train was about to enter the Cingshuei Tunnel on its way from Taipei to Taitung.
"Based on footage from surveillance cameras and our on-site observation, we infer that the truck fell downhill through a treeless patch on the side of the slope after the engine was turned off and fell on the railroad," Taiwan Transportation Safety Board Chairman Young Hong-tsu said in a report by the Taipei Times.
"A head-on collision ensued about one-and-a-half minutes after the truck flipped over onto the tracks."
He added that operator and an assistant both applied the train's brakes but weren't able to avoid hitting the truck.
Officials believe the truck's brakes had not been applied properly and caused it to slide onto the tracks. The leader of the construction site where the truck had been parked was released on bail last week.
