A liability inquiry into a serious motorbike accident that was said to have been caused by illegal or unused cable lines near the Government Information Office (GIO), led to Taipei City Councilor Lee Chin-yuan (
Looking over the site with Legislative Yuan staff, city officials and victims of the accident, Lee found that city workers had already cleared the lines -- which are said to have originated from the Legislative Yuan.
The city's information department had already confirmed the existence of the illegal cables on a Jan. 17 inspection, one day after the accident.
Afterward, staff at the Legislative Yuan claimed the cleanup had been done as part of routine renovation work.
They also denied Lee's accusation that the cable was put up at the behest of legislators, who rent offices outside the Legislative Yuan for their own private use.
Lee launched the inspection together with legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), following requests from 18-year-old motorcyclist Chung Hsiu-ting (鍾秀鼎), who was involved in the traffic accident.
"I was baffled by the cause of the accident and I want to know who I should file a lawsuit against. So I turned to city councilors for help," Chung said.
Recalling the Jan. 16 accident, Chung said he had passed the intersection of Peiping East Road and Tienchin Street when his motorcycle skidded and tipped over.
Passenger Hung Chien-hui (
Chung said he discovered the site of the accident was littered with cables on the roadside, which were connected to lines hung on trees nearby and were the probable cause of the accident.
He also said Hung's current prognosis was poor: "She has been unable to walk normally, nor can she concentrate without pain."
Lee said that after he received Chung's request, he asked the city's information department -- responsible for clearing illegal or unused cable TV lines -- to find the source of the cables.
Producing a written document from the information department dated Jan. 21, Lee said the department concluded the cables came from Legislative Yuan offices two blocks away.
Chiu Pen-shin (
He said although the workteam had discovered the lines in question were not cable TV wires, he had given the order to clean them up because of the danger they posed to passersby.
The lines, said to have been linked to the Legislative Yuan, were in place during the Jan. 17 inspection, Chiu said.
Lee said he suspected the source of the cables was legislators who maintained offices in a building across from the legislature and had the cables installed for their private use.
Echoing Lee's view, Lai said it was "ironic" that legislators had set up illegal cable lines.
Nevertheless, attempts to trace the source of the cables were foiled yesterday when officials showed up at the site to find the cables had been removed in "routine renovation."
Legislative Yuan staff refuted city councilors' accusations that the cables had been ordered cleared before the inspection.
"The Legislative Yuan, as a government agency, will abide by the law. We would never allow legislators to set up cables for closed-circuit television outside the Yuan," said Yu Teng-fang (
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