Shaw stable but still on life support

Chimei Hospital superintendent Chan Chi-shean (詹啟賢) had a smile on his face yesterday while reporting on the condition of Shaw Hsiao-ling (邵曉鈴), wife of Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).

Chan said Shaw was no longer in immediate danger, with her heart and lungs increasingly stable. He also said that a full body computer tomography (CT) scan was to be performed on Shaw yesterday to check her organs.

Hou Ching-cheng (侯清正), supervisor of the ward where Shaw is being treated, said that life support systems and pain medication were still required.

But Hou said that dialysis was no longer necessary.

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), who accompanied Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore on a tour of his home town in Tainan County yesterday, visited Shaw and Hu before continuing to Kaohsiung County to hold a state dinner for Compaore.

Chen offered words of encouragement to Hu but did not see Shaw as it was outside the hospital's visiting hours.

Chen stayed for 20 minutes but did not speak to reporters.

Meanwhile, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday urged the public to follow traffic laws and asked the police to strictly enforce the law.

"Motorists and scooter drivers often do not follow the traffic rules just because `nobody is watching me.' The police are criticized as looking for trouble while they are actually enforcing the law. This is all wrong," the premier said.

Su was speaking during the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday.

He said he had requested that an appeal mechanism for those ticketed by police be established.

"The latest statistics show that more than 2,000 people die in car accidents every year. These people die for nothing because these accidents can be avoided if people follow traffic rules," he said.

Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling