A preliminary Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems (DORTS) report on a fatal accident on Friday involving a fallen steel girder at a Taichung Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) construction site yesterday attributed the incident to human error by supervisors and workers at the site.
Further investigation by prosecutors would be required to clarify what caused the accident that killed four people and left four injured, the department said.
The DORTS was commissioned by the Taichung City Government to construct a 16.7km MRT line from Wuri (烏日) to Beitun (北屯) in 2009, which was scheduled for completion by 2020 before Taichung Mayor Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) demanded in January that it be completed two years ahead of schedule for a trial run in 2018.
Photo: CNA
Friday’s accident occurred on an elevated section of the Taichung MRT’s Green Line, near the intersection of Beitun Road and Wensin Road, when a 43m-long, 209-tonne steel girder fell from a height of about three stories onto a busy road.
The girder had been correctly placed on cap beams at the time of the accident, but it tilted to one side after a tow truck released a cable and fell to the ground when another tow truck began to release its cable at 4:40pm, the report found.
Supervisors and workers in the hoisting operation are suspected of improperly framing the girder onto the posts, the report said, but added that further investigation is needed to clarify whether the accident had anything to do with specific hardware as well as what shifted the girder to one side, among other things.
Photo: Liao Yau-tung, Taipei Times
At a news conference yesterday afternoon in Taipei hosted by Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮); Cheng Tsan-feng (鄭燦鋒), president of Far Eastern Construction Co (遠揚營造), the project’s general contractor; and the company’s general manager, Kao Hung-ju (高弘儒), bowed to apologize to the public.
Construction is to be suspended until prosecutors complete their investigation, Charles Lin said, adding that the city government would post the report online for public review and cooperate fully with prosecutors in their investigation.
Cheng said that the company has assigned personnel to provide assistance to the families of each of the victims, adding that it would cooperate with the investigation.
Photo: Liao Yau-tung, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office summoned several construction workers for questioning on Friday night, including the drivers of the two trucks, Cheng Yung-chung (鄭永崇) and Lai Hung-wei (賴弘偉), as well as Far Eastern Construction Co supervisors and engineers.
Some were charged with suspicion of vocational negligence resulting in death and were released on bail.
Lin Chia-lung, who was in South Korea at the time of the accident, cut his visit short and returned home early yesterday to visit the injured at China Medical University Hospital in Taichung and to pay tribute to the deceased at funeral parlors.
He told victims’ relatives that the city government would shoulder full responsibility for the accident.
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