Husband accuses Australia of hiding accident details

The husband of a Taiwanese student killed on a university campus in Australia last year yesterday accused the Australian Commerce and Industry Office of concealing information about the investigation into his wife's death.

Lin Chun (林春), 26, was crushed when an unmanned truck, which rolled down a slope from a construction site on the grounds of the University of New South Wales, pinned her up against a wall.

Lin was on campus that day applying for a result certification from the university, from which she had just been graduated with a master's degree. She died in a hospital from her injuries.

The driver of the truck insists that he put the handbrake on before getting out of the vehicle, and the construction site foreman says he witnessed this.

A police test of the truck found the handbrake to be in perfect working order.

Wu Cheng-chung (吳正中), Lin's husband, said that the university has denied liability for the accident.

Police said they were powerless to charge anyone in connection with Lin's death.

A New South Wales State Coroner's investigation declared the police investigation unsatisfactory, however, as a special crash-investigation unit was not taken to the scene to conduct a full investigation. The coroner referred the matter back to senior police for reinvestigation.

Wu said he had, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, sought information from the coroner in May about how the investigation was proceeding. He said that the Australian Commerce and Industry Office had concealed the fact that the special crash investigation unit had not been sent to the scene of the accident.

"The Australian Commerce and Industry Office did not mention this fact when delivering the coroner's response to me," Wu said.