Hualien investigators yesterday were trying to determine whether a decision made by three men to abandon a companion during a difficult hike constituted a crime because the man left behind did not survive.
Hualien fire authorities said 69-year-old Chen Shiou-kuan (陳秀寬) died during a hike along the Mount Bilu (畢祿)-Mount Yangtou (羊頭) trail in Hualien County with three other men.
Lin Ya-ching (林雅青), the 65-year-old leader of the four-man team, told the authorities they had set off on the trail early on Sunday and planned to complete the hike in 15 hours.
However, two hours after they began, the temperature went down to about 0°C, and it started to rain and snow, Lin said.
The hikers’ clothing became soaked despite them wearing waterproof overcoats.
Lin said that as they were walking on a ridge between Mount Bilu and Mount Yangtou, Chen turned pale and started to shake due to the extremely cold weather. He fell down and could not walk anymore.
Lin said that because they were in an area with cliffs, they could not help Chen move. The men boiled and drank hot water to try and keep themselves warm.
However, by 3pm, Chen was suffering from hypothermia and had lost consciousness.
Lin said he called 119 and the men decided to leave Chen under a rock and keep moving to save themselves.
Lin said that a rescue team met them as they were leaving the mountain and arranged for them to rest at a house nearby.
Fire authorities said a rescue team comprised of more than 20 people reached Chen on Monday night, but he was already dead.
Hualien investigators said that abandoning an individual whose life is in danger could be considered an offense punishable by law, but that if the lives of the men had been endangered, they had not broken the law.
Investigators said they would interview the three to clarify the matter.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS