The “child safety seat” and “silent buckle” — used to quieten car seatbelt alarms — are popular products. Manufacturers even boast of such products having passed national standard inspections.
The only problem? While the products may not be illegal per se, using them certainly is.
According to the Road Traffic Security Rules (道路交通安全規則), bicycles are barred from carrying passengers, and violators could face a fine of between NT$300 and NT$600, an official with the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ Department of Railways and Highways said. However, in practice the police do not ticket violators and the public flouts the rules.
Photo: Tseng Hung-ju, Taipei Times
The legal authorities are at an even greater loss when it comes to disciplining the manufacturers of such unsafe products. They have their hands tied because of a lack of relevant regulations.
In the meantime, large numbers of parents continue to take their children to school or on outings in the safety seat, and are no doubt reassured that the seat has cleared a quality inspection.
Meanwhile, demand is rising for the “silent buckle,” retailers said.
In August last year the ministry made it compulsory for backseat passengers to buckle up, in a bid to reduce the death toll from road accidents.
A decade ago, the ministry made it compulsory for front-seat passengers to wear seat belts, and then decreed that automobile manufacturers must equip cars with a seat-belt reminder light or some kind of warning alarm, activated by a pressure sensor under the passenger seat, to persuade people to belt up.
However, by plugging in the silent buckle the seatbelt alarm is disabled and the annoying alarm tone, that would otherwise force passengers into buckling up, goes silent. Priced between NT$100 and NT$200, a driver can purchase a dozen of the devices for less than the price of a traffic ticket.
With the latest legislation requiring back-seat passengers to buckle up, sales volumes have increased by at least 30 percent, auto parts retailers said, adding that they have been busy replenishing their stocks to meet the growing demand.
Lin Fu-shan (林福山), head of the ministry’s Department of Railways and Highways’ supervision section, said the two products are in clear violation of the regulations, but there is no law to penalize producers of the illegal products.
Lin said that installing child safety seats on bikes is against regulations, but is mostly considered a trivial offense and is not reported. Violators usually only receive a warning instead of being fined, he said.
Translated by Stacy Hsu, Staff Writer
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS