The solution to the situation outlined in the article below would seem to be perfectly suited to DTI's security surveillance systems. If DTI were able to get involved it would be a huge step forward for the company given the size of Japan's shinkansen (bullet train) network, especially between Tokyo and Osaka which includes Yokohama, Nagoya and Kyoto as stops between the two.
The engineer of the Tokaido bullet train that was halted last year when a passenger set himself on fire failed to swiftly evacuate the passengers, a government-linked panel said Thursday.
A year after the incident, in which the 71-year-old man who started the fire and a 52-year-old woman were killed and 28 others were injured, the investigative panel released a report that said many passengers were hindered from escaping because others had stopped to see what was happening.
The Japan Transport Safety Board, which reports to the government, urged railway operators to raise public awareness of the need to evacuate swiftly in case of emergency.
While railway operators have been enhancing the security of bullet trains since the fire in the Tokyo-Osaka Tokaido shinkansen on June 30 last year, the board said more security cameras should be set up in train cars and measures should be taken to allow crew members to monitor developments.
The report said the man began pouring gasoline in the first car, prompting passengers there to flee. But security camera footage has also shown that some passengers stopped at the far end of the car to watch the man.
The body of the woman who was killed was found near the exit at the end of the car.
The injured suffered from respiratory track burns or carbon monoxide poisoning.
The report concluded that the driver of the shinkansen was right to apply the brakes after the emergency alarm went off and then to speed up to exit a tunnel after realizing a fire must have started.
It also said the use of nonflammable or flame-retardant materials inside the car helped prevent the fire from spreading.
The motive behind the self-immolation remains unclear, although acquaintances of the man said that he had financial problems. The case was referred to prosecutors on charges including arson and injury resulting in death, but there was no indictment because the man died.
Some light on the size of the network between Tokyo and Osaka is shed in the following passage from Wikipedia.
The original Tōkaidō Shinkansen, connecting the largest cities of Tokyo and Osaka, is the world's busiest high-speed rail line. Carrying 151 million passengers per year (March 2008),[6] and at over 5 billion total passengers it has transported more passengers [7] than any other high-speed line in the world. The service on the line operates much larger trains and at higher frequency than most other high speed lines in the world. At peak times, the line carries up to thirteen trains per hour in each direction with sixteen cars each (1,323-seat capacity and occasionally additional standing passengers) with a minimum headway of three minutes between trains.
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