The Control Yuan yesterday censured the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and the Bureau of High Speed Rail (BHSR) over alleged lax management of train drivers.
Speaking at a news conference, Control Yuan member Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏) said the Control Yuan reproached the MOTC and BHSR for an incident involving a high speed train driver who became “temporarily dysfunctional” for 13 minutes while operating a train on April 24.
“Being ‘temporarily dysfunctional’ is much more risky than falling asleep,” Cheng said. “How could the driver, who had been taking non-prescription sleeping pills offered by a friend for two or three months, still pass Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp’s [THSRC] examination and be allowed to drive that day?”
Cheng said the incident was brought to light by a passenger who wrote a letter to the bureau about the incident.
“THSRC did not immediately report the mishap to BHSR, arousing rampant public speculation that the company was attempting to cover it up,” the Control Yuan member said.
Cheng said that job requirements for high speed rail train drivers should be on par with those for aircraft pilots.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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