Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (
After suspending the service on Saturday night following the incident, the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) resumed services at 12pm yesterday.
Hau yesterday acknowledged the city government and TRTC's failure to ensure the system's stability and to handle the crisis.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
He said his government would take responsibility for the accident and singled out officials in the administration and in the TRTC.
"We will make a thorough examination on the system's problems and continue to improve the service so that it will meet the public's expectations," Hau told a press conference at Taipei City Hall yesterday afternoon.
In all, seven officials were disciplined for negligence: TRTC vice president Tan Kuo-kuang (譚國光) and senior officials Sheng Chi-tseng (沈志藏) and Huang Chiang-chang (黃建昌); as well as Taipei City Secretariat Deputy Director Yang Hsi-an (楊錫安) and officials Cheng Chun-min (鄭俊明), Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) and Chen Shih-chie (陳世傑).
Hau said the city government would also look into the role of French company POMA, the system's builder, as it had been informed by a construction consultant of unusual noises on Saturday morning, but failed to check the system immediately.
Two POMA engineers in Taipei were investigating the noises when the failure occurred. Although no clear link has been established between the noises and the incident, it is believed that they may have been related.
Yang said that the city government set up an emergency response team on Saturday consisting of contractors and consultants to examine the problem. The team conducted test runs until 3am yesterday before resuming service at 12pm.
The equipment failure occurred at 4:50pm on Saturday at the Corner One Station. An evacuation began at 5:50pm.
The last passengers were evacuated at approximately 6:55pm.
While some visitors were shrugging off the incident as they waited in line to take the cable car yesterday, the Consumers' Foundation condemned the city government's disregard for the safety of passengers and urged it to halt the service.
"We seriously doubt that the system is now safe after a mere half day of inspection. The service should be suspended until the city government has set up a safety mechanism," foundation chairman Cheng Hung-jen (
In response, Hau said the city government would seek to improve the service, but continued to vouch for its safety.
"Our preliminary inspection confirmed the safety of the system, so we won't halt operations for now," he said.
Asked to comment on the accident, former Taipei mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), whose administration launched the cable car project in 2005, expressed concerns over the system's safety, but declined to comment on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) criticisms of him over the matter.
"I called Mayor Hau right after I learned about the incident and he told me that the city government would fix the problem and ensure the safety of visitors," Ma said yesterday after attending an event in Taipei.
DPP Legislator Kao Chien-chih (高建智) told a press conference that a safety reexamination of the cable car was necessary, given that 77 malfunctions have occurred since system began operations on July 4.
"The quality and management [of the system] are problematic," he said.
"Therefore, without a thorough safety examination, the cable car operation should be fully suspended," Kao said.
Additional reporting by Flora Wang
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)