Public prosecutors in Taipei yesterday indicted Lu Chung-chi (呂忠吉) over the inferno at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park on June 27, which resulted in 12 deaths and nearly 500 suffering burns.
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office charged Lu with professional negligence resulting in death and professional negligence causing bodily harm.
The office did not indict Formosa Fun Coast water park chairman Chen Po-ting (陳柏廷), general manager Chen Hui-ying (陳慧潁) or administrative director Lin Yu-fen (林玉芬).
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Prosecutors also did not indict five other individuals who were summoned for questioning during the investigation, all of whom are employees of event promoter Juipo International Marketing Co (瑞博國際整合行銷): manager Chou Hung-wei (周宏瑋); hardware technician Chiu Po-ming (邱柏銘); special effects technician Liao Chun-ming (廖俊明); and Shen Hao-jan (沈浩然) and Lu Chien-yu (廬建佑), who were responsible for operating equipment at the event.
An explosion of powder and the resulting inferno were caused by dense concentrations of sprayed cornstarch that came into contact with the incandescent bulbs used for stage lighting, which had a surface temperature of more than 400oC, the indictment cited fire department investigators as saying.
The three water park executives were not indicted because the cause of the explosion had nothing to do with the park’s firefighting and safety equipment, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Chen Hsi-chu (陳錫柱) said, adding that the park had passed a facility safety and emergency service inspection by New Taipei City Government agencies.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Furthermore, Lu had a rental agreement with the water park’s proprietors, in which he rented the swimming pool and surrounding areas for the Color Play Asia party, which took place after the park’s standard business hours.
“As it was a rental agreement to use parts of the premises, there was no splitting of the event’s profit and no business relationship exists between Lu’s company and the park’s proprietors,” Chen said.
According to the terms of the rental agreement, Lu was responsible for maintaining public safety, and onsite firefighting and safety equipment, which absolved Formosa Fun Coast’s proprietors of blame, the prosecutors said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Eighty-six people sustained serious burns and 383 received less-serious injuries, prosecutors said, adding that 16 of them were foreign nationals from the US, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, China, Macau or Hong Kong.
“Due to the defendant’s actions and negligence, the event ended with a significant number of fatalities and injuries. Therefore, we are requesting severe punishment in this case,” the prosecutors said.
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS