Thirteen officials were held responsible for a landslide on the Formosa Freeway (Freeway No. 3) last year, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
Four people in three cars were buried alive on April 25 after a landslide on a slope that had been shaved at the base when the freeway was built.
The ministry said in a recent report that there was no “evident negligence of duty on the part of officials.”
However, a report on Tuesday last week by the Control Yuan pointed out stark human errors.
Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) yesterday said the ministry had punished six National Freeway Bureau (NFB) officials in September.
“The ministry has taken into account the report from the Control Yuan, instructions from the Executive Yuan, as well as the public’s reaction,” Yeh said. “We felt it was necessary to raise the level of the punishment.”
Specifically, former NFB chief Lee Thay-ming (李泰明), who is now a consultant at the ministry, received a minor demerit for failing to follow the regulations stated in the Highway Maintenance Manual.
Lee was also blamed for not following procedure before the bureau stopped budgeting the funding for maintenance of landslide detectors.
“Even though this [funding freeze] was not directly related to the accident, we think it may pose a potential danger in the future,” Yeh said.
NFB Director-General Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁), who at the time was deputy director-general of the National Expressway Engineering Bureau (NEEB), was also given a minor demerit for failing to forward a report submitted by the Central Geological Survey in June 2008 to the NFB.
The survey listed the road section where the accident occurred as a potential landslide area. However, the survey only sent the report to the Institute of Transportation, NEEB and the Directorate-General of Highways. It did not send additional copies to the NFB and the ministry.
Among the others who were issued warnings were NFB Deputy Director-General Chen Wu-hsiu (陳武修), former NEEB Design Division director Lu Jieh-bin (呂介斌) and former deputy director Chen Kuo-long (陳國隆).
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