The head of Taiwan's transport department, Lin Chia-lung, will resign after a train disaster that killed 49 people. The corresponding decree was signed on Thursday, TASS reported.

The official will leave office on April 20. He himself expressed his readiness to resign soon after the tragedy, but it was approved only now, when the elimination of all consequences of the disaster and the investigation were completed. 

The eight-car Taroko Express crashed on April 2 at the entrance to a mountain tunnel as a result of a collision with a truck crane, which was poorly parked in the wrong place on a hillside and rolled on the way. The head carriage caught the platform of the truck crane and carried it into the tunnel, which displaced the train from the rails and led to a train wreck, which was carrying 498 people.

The largest train disaster on the island in 70 years killed 49 people and injured about 200 passengers.