Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chien Chao-tung (簡肇棟) yesterday tendered his resignation and withdrew from January’s legislative elections in Greater Taichung after being released on bail for a hit-and-run accident in which a man died.
In a hastily called press conference after being released on NT$200,000 bail, Chien denied intentionally leaving the scene of an accident, but announced he was stepping down as a legislator and pulling out of the election.
He said he thought he had run over an object, not a person.
Photo: Chang Hsieh-sheng, Taipei Times
Chien, 56, said he did not know he had run over and killed the man, surnamed Chen (陳), until he was informed by police yesterday morning.
He said he had extended his condolences to Chen’s family and that he would face up to the ensuing investigation.
DPP officials said the party was sorry to learn of the accident and extended its condolences to the victim and his family, and it would conduct its own investigation as well.
A replacement candidate for Chien would be announced later, the party said.
Chien was driving in Dali District (大里), Greater Taichung, on Saturday night when he ran over a man in his 50s at 11:48pm, Taichung City police chief Tiao Cheng-sheng (刁建生) said yesterday.
The victim was sent to hospital before being pronounced dead from severe injuries a short time later.
Police identified Chien through surveillance video, Tiao said, adding that Chien had reported to the police and admitted he was driving the car at the time of the accident.
Police said a witness reported that the victim appeared drunk and was hit by a car after falling onto the road.
Taichung City Police Bureau’s Traffic Police Corps declined to discuss specific details of the accident because its investigation was ongoing.
Chien, who had been seeking re-election, was running against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in the seventh district of Taiping (太平) and Dali (大里).
A physician by training, Chien defeated the KMT’s Yu Wen-chin (余文欽) in Taichung County in a by-election for the legislative seat in January last year.
He had lost in the same district in the 2008 legislative elections to the KMT’s Chiang Lien-fu (江連福). Chiang lost the seat in October 2009 for vote-buying.
Chien also served as Dali City mayor in what was then Taichung County from 1998 to 2002 and a previous term as a DPP legislator from 2002 to 2005.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by