Deaths and injuries at level crossings have hit a record high this year, with 10 people dying and 13 injured between January and this month, Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) statistics show.
There have been 407 accidents at level crossings over the past 10 years — an average of 3.39 incidents per month — with a total of 149 people dying and 113 injured, the TRA said.
Over the past 10 years, the TRA has replaced more than 12,250 barriers at level crossings after motorists crashed into them, itsaid, adding that the number is disturbing.
The TRA has spent more than NT$6.17 million (US$188,236) on replacing the barriers, while motorists causing accidents have been fined a total of NT$314.59 million, it said.
The TRA said that with each barrier averaging 6m in length, the total length of barriers broken is 73.5km, which is 163 times the height of Taipei 101.
However, an event held by the TRA and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications’ road safety bureau to promote national railway crossings week on Tuesday last week at Taipei Main Station touted the “excellent results of efforts to prevent railway crossing incidents,” while claiming that the death toll for railway incidents has decreased from a decade ago.
Yet the absence of TRA director Chou Yung-hui (周永暉) and any high-level officials from the Taipei City Government from the event implies that it was not accorded much importance by those in the higher echelons of either organization.
Reporters attending the event questioned its necessity if efforts at preventing accidents on railway crossings had been so successful.
TRA deputy director Lu Chieh-shen (鹿潔身) said that new prevention measures had been implemented, such as an increased number of emergency stop buttons near level crossings.
The TRA has also installed LEDs that show which direction trains are coming from at railway crossings and equipped trains with a system to automatically detect obstructions on railway tracks, Lu said.
Regarding a Nov. 6 accident in which a train collided with a truck on a level crossing, Lu said that the TRA was still looking into whether the driver had gotten out of the truck to press an emergency stop button.
The TRA plans to petition the Legislative Yuan to pass a motion that would increase fines for illegally traversing railway crossings from a maximum of NT$60,000, Lu said.
Meanwhile, Fengchia University professor Lee Ker-tsung (李克聰) said that the government needs to step up public-education efforts to address the problem at its roots.
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