A funeral ceremony for Yang Yong, the hero driver of a derailed bullet train D2809 killed on duty, was held Tuesday at a funeral parlor in his hometown of Zunyi, a city in Southwest China's Guizhou Province. Yang's family and friends, comrade-in-arms, colleagues and local people came to see him off.

Yang, the driver who passed away due to serious injuries, took emergency braking measures within 5 seconds to prevent the train from overturning and falling and ensure the safety of those on board, when the high-speed train derailed in Guizhou due to a mudslide on June 4.

Two coaches of the D2809, a bullet train from Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, to Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, derailed at a tunnel entrance of the Rongjiang station in Guizhou due to a mudslide that intruded on the rail track at 10:30 am on June 4, leading to the death of the driver.

One attendant and seven passengers sustained non-life threatening injuries and have received proper treatment, and other 136 passengers were safely extracted and transferred, said a post on June 4 on the official Weibo account of Southwest Railway, owned by the Chengdu Bureau of China Railway.

According to on-board data analysis, Yang, the driver on duty, found that the line was abnormal when the train came to the Yuexhai tunnel before the arrival at Rongjiang station in Southwest China's Guizhou Province, and took emergency braking measures within 5 seconds, as the train coasted more than 900 meters, read the post.

The driver's decisive stop at the critical moment, as well as the overall protective effect of the anti-collision wall and track structure of high-speed railway, avoided the overturning and falling of the train, thus ensuring the safety of those on board.

Yang Yong returned to his hometown Zunyi on June 5, where more than 100 of his colleagues and many local people held flowers and banners to see him off. "Welcome Home Hero," reads one of the banners held by local residents.

"I still can't believe what happened," said one of Yang's colleagues, a little choked up, "Yang saved so many people, but he couldn't save himself."

Yang is also a retired armed police officer who served in South China's Hainan Province. "I'm not surprised he chose to put people's lives and safety first, it's just his natural reaction," said one of Yang's former comrades.

Besides Yang's family, friends and colleagues, many local people also spontaneously rushed to his funeral ceremony on Tuesday to see off the hero who saved many more lives.

Global Times