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The conductor of a train that derailed off a bridge near one of Taiwan's most famous mountains will be charged with "negligence and dereliction of duty," news reaching said.
Men in charge of the train routine checking will also be charged for the same reason.
Taiwan's chief prosecutor had earlier blamed brake failure for Saturday's train derailment that killed 17 and injured over 170 people.
The chief prosecutor told reporters that human errors were to blame for the fatal accident, after making an investigation in the crash site at scenic Mount Ali with a group of experts.
He claimed that the coupling linking the brake of the four-carriage train to the locomotive was switched off, resulting in brake failure in the carriages but not in the locomotive.
The forest railway administration claimed that the train had short check-up time before the train departured.
The chief prosecutor said that the brake system of the carriages did not work while the train was running along a down slope on the biggest curve of the mountain.
The derailment occurred at about 2:09 p.m. Saturday when the four-carriage train carrying some 200 passengers was crossing a bridge.
The 72.7 km Ali Mountain forest railway, built in 1911, links up Chaiyi with Ali Mountain. It is one of the world's three famous mountain-climbing railway systems.
(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2003)
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