The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday convicted 12 people of negligence causing death and other charges following a series of gas explosions that rocked Kaohsiung in 2014, handing out sentences ranging from four years to four years and 10 months, including to former LCY Chemical Corp (李長榮化工) chairman Bowei Lee (李謀偉) and local government officials.
The rulings came after three years of questioning and testimony by 510 persons of interest, witnesses, experts and defendants, and involved the efforts of 12 prosecutors, a court statement said.
Lee was given a four-year sentence, while Kaohsiung City Government Secretary-General Chao Chien-chiao (趙建喬) was handed a four-year, 10-month prison term.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
It was the first ruling and it can be appealed.
Five LCY Chemical Corp employees, including a plant manager, supervisors and technicians in the control room, were also convicted of the charges and all received a four-year prison sentences.
Three employees of China General Terminal & Distribution Corp (CGTD, 華運倉儲) were also convicted and handed four-year, six-month sentences.
Two Kaohsiung Sewage System Office technicians, Yang Tsung-jen (楊宗仁) and Chiu Ping-wen (邱炳文), were found guilty of professional negligence and received the heaviest sentences, four-year, 10-month prison terms.
The series of underground explosions, which left 32 people dead and 321 injured, began in Kaohsiung’s Lingya (苓雅) and Cianjhen (前鎮) districts on July 31, 2014, following reports of gas leaks earlier that night.
The court found the 12 defendants guilty of negligence relating to leaking propene from underground pipelines that caused the blasts.
Following an investigation, an underground pipeline belonging to LCY was found to be corroded and the cause of the gas leak.
As a result, Lee and the five LCY employees were convicted for their roles in the incident, which prosecutors attributed to their failure to conduct proper maintenance on a regular basis.
Their failure to monitor the process properly also contributed to the explosions, the ruling said.
The court found Chao, who worked as an engineer in the Kaohsiung Sewage System Office when the blasts took place, and the two technicians working under him, guilty of negligence as they had signed off on an inspection of a culvert containing three pipelines without notifying the relevant companies to inspect them.
The extent to which the defendants sought to settle with the victims was a key point for the judges in determining the sentences, as each had sought to blame others and denied any personal responsibility, Chief Judge Yeh Wen-po (葉文博) said.
LCY paid NT$12 million (US$403,050) to the families of each of the 32 people killed in the blasts, a total of NT$384 million, in line with an agreement reached, Yeh said.
CGTD reached a compensation deal with 63 of the 321 people injured and has paid out more than NT$500 million, the court said.
The district court said it had not received any report from the Kaohsiung City Government indicating that it had reached an agreement with victims to compensate them for damage to their property, Yeh added.
Lee’s attorney said Lee would appeal the ruling.
Although the court handed down its ruling, it had failed to determine the “scientific truth” behind the explosions and Lee wants foreign experts to conduct an examination of the available evidence to determine the real reason for the explosions, which he denies were caused by LCY’s pipeline, the attorney added.
“This ruling is very unfair to me, so I will certainly appeal,” Chao said.
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
Taiwan has experienced its most significant improvement in the QS World University Rankings by Subject, data provided on Sunday by international higher education analyst Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) showed. Compared with last year’s edition of the rankings, which measure academic excellence and influence, Taiwanese universities made great improvements in the H Index metric, which evaluates research productivity and its impact, with a notable 30 percent increase overall, QS said. Taiwanese universities also made notable progress in the Citations per Paper metric, which measures the impact of research, achieving a 13 percent increase. Taiwanese universities gained 10 percent in Academic Reputation, but declined 18 percent
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
UNDER DISCUSSION: The combatant command would integrate fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups to defend waters closest to the coastline, a source said The military could establish a new combatant command as early as 2026, which would be tasked with defending Taiwan’s territorial waters 24 nautical miles (44.4km) from the nation’s coastline, a source familiar with the matter said yesterday. The new command, which would fall under the Naval Command Headquarters, would be led by a vice admiral and integrate existing fast attack boat and anti-ship missile groups, along with the Naval Maritime Surveillance and Reconnaissance Command, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. It could be launched by 2026, but details are being discussed and no final timetable has been announced, the source