As from June, children under the age of four or weighing under 18kg travelling in cars will be required to be seated in a child-safety seat secured in the back seat or drivers could be fined NT$500, the Committee of Traffic Safety Supervision said yesterday.
However, due to an overwhelming amount of feedback on the new policy, the Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC) made a few exceptions to the rule just weeks before the regulation is to be implemented nationwide.
According to a ministry press release, an exception will be made for families with at least three children under the age of four. Because most cars are unable to accommodate more than two safety seats in the back seat, the ministry said that it would be acceptable if the oldest of the three did not use a safety seat.
The ministry will also make exceptions for parents who choose to accompany the three children in the back seat, disregarding regulations limiting the number of passengers in the back seat to three.
"We made these exceptions because it is difficult to fit three car seats in the back seat, but also because many cars do not have enough seat belts to accommodate three car seats," said Lee Long-wen (
In addition, families driving cars manufactured in Taiwan before 1991, when the government began requiring that manufacturers install seatbelts in all cars, will be exempt as well.
However, the exceptions to the car seat regulation have brought about criticism that unwarranted leniency does not bring about child safety.
The Jing Chuan Child Safety Foundation asked why the safety of the third child in the back seat or the children of families owning cars manufactured before 1991 was not a matter of concern, if the ministry was really serious about child safety.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching