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Activity organizer apologizes over drowning

An activity organizer yesterday apologized to the public and the family of a National Taiwan University student who drowned during a stream tracing outing sponsored by the school club last weekend.

Chen Chien-liang (陳建良) drowned in a river in Evergreen Valley, a popular sightseeing destination in Miaoli County, as he attended the outing with 59 other college students held by a student club, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles.

"We are wrong for not equipping the participants with any lifesaving equiipment for the stream tracing activity," the club's spokesman Chang Chuan-feng (張全鋒) told a press conference. "We were also wrong for not providing any life preservers."

He said the club underestimated the danger of the activity.

"We thought the two-hour stream tracing would be easy given that the water was around 150cm, and our guides had explored the stream tracing route before the actual activity took place and thought is was easy," he said.

At the press conference, Chang dismissed local media reports that said no one had tried to rescue Chen while he was drowning.

Chang said Chen and two other students held hands when they stepped in the river.

When Chen stepped into a deeper area then waved his hands for help, a student surnamed Liu shouted for others to rescue Chen.

Several students immediately extended their arms looking for Chen, said Chang, adding that students who could swim also dived in to look for him but to no avail.

Some twenty minutes later when the rescuers arrived and searched for Chen, he was found dead, Chang said.

Chang said the club will shoulder responsibility for the incident, and will discuss compensation with Chen's family.
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