Blocked pedestrian areas, poorly designed sidewalks and construction frequently force pedestrians onto roadways, often resulting in serious injury, advocacy groups for the disabled said yesterday.
At a press conference, the groups -- including the Federation of the Disabled of the Republic of China -- urged the government and the public to "return the sidewalks to pedestrians."
Wen Chi-hsiang (
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Because the sidewalk he was on was filled with motorcycles and vendor stands, he had to drive his electric wheelchair into the slow-traffic lane on the road and was hit from behind by a taxi, dislocating his left shoulder, breaking his pelvis and receiving facial injuries when his wheelchair overturned, he said.
Wen, who is left-handed, said he could no longer use the hand to write or do other things.
To protect himself, he has now installed a light on his wheelchair.
Eden Social Welfare Foundation's deputy CEO Lin Chin-chuan (
While using a car lane he was seriously injured in an accident.
He ended up with tens of stitches in his head and was hospitalized for three months; his brain injury continues to impact on his sense of smell, he said.
Lu Hung-wen (呂鴻文), chairman of the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Welfare for the Blind, said one of the association's members was also injured after being forced to walk in a slow-traffic lane two years ago because the sidewalk was blocked. However, the road was being repaired, but the warning signs were beyond the reach of the blind person's white stick. The person then fell into sewage that was five stories deep and, after being rescued, had to remain in hospital for two weeks to recover from the effects of the sewage, Lu said.
Hsieh Tung-ju (謝東儒), secretary-general of the Federation of the Disabled, suggested that government officials regularly update themselves on regulations to help ensure the safety of the disabled.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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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