Oliver Chen (陳瑞光), a leading member of the Sunflower movement, died on Monday after his scooter slipped off the road and he fell over a railing into a river valley on his way from New Taipei City’s Pinglin District (坪林) to Yilan County, police said.
A truck driver surnamed Hsueh (薛) reported the incident on Monday, police said.
Hsueh, who was driving back to Taipei from Yilan County, said he spotted a scooter without a rider near the 46.3km mark on the Taipei-Yilan Highway. He stopped and looked around for the driver before calling the police.
Rescuers from the fire department found Chen’s body in the river valley near the road, police said.
Chen showed no vital signs when his body was retrieved from the valley, which was about 9m deep, police said, adding that he had multiple fractures and bruises on both arms and legs.
The 46.3km mark on the highway is at a right-turn bend, the officers said, adding that the concrete railway showed no visible signs of impact.
They have talked to Chen’s mother, but she said she did not know why her son went to Yilan.
A third-year graduate student of law at National Taiwan University, Chen spoke English, Japanese, German and French, and played an important role in the Sunflower movement’s real-time updates to the world.
The activists provided round-the-clock broadcasts in English, Japanese, German, French, Dutch, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish and Arabic during their occupation of the legislature in March to protest the government’s handling of a proposed service trade agreement with China.
Chen was part of the 80-person team tasked with communicating with foreign media and oversaw the translation of a civilian version of the cross-strait oversight act.
Chen’s body was sent to Taipei City Wanfang Hospital.
Student leaders Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷), Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆), Academia Sinica researcher Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and other members of the Sunflower movement visited on Tuesday to express their condolences.
The news of his passing came as a shock to university staff and students, with the university’s secretary-general, Lin Ta-te (林達德), expressing his condolences.
The university would do everything in its power to help Oliver Chen’s family, Lin Ta-te said.
One of the university’s law professors, Lee Mau-sheng (李茂生), said in a Facebook post that it was sad to lose a talented individual like Oliver Chen in an accident.
Additional reporting by Su Fang-ho and Wu Po-hsuan
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS