The last patient injured in a deadly dust explosion at the Formosa Fun Coast (八仙海岸) water park in New Taipei City’s Bali District (八里) on June 27 last year was discharged from hospital earlier this month, while recovery for the hundreds of people injured in the incident continues, health authorities said yesterday, six days ahead of the one-year anniversary of the disaster.
The patient, a 21-year-old man with burns covering 90 percent of his body, was discharged on June 3 after receiving treatment at two hospitals in Taipei for a total of 341 days, the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said.
NHIA official Chang Wen-wen (張溫溫) said the man underwent several skin grafts and physical therapy on his joints.
The blast at the water park occurred when colored cornstarch powder, used for party effects, exploded and burst into flames, engulfing partygoers.
A total of 508 people were injured and 15 died from their injuries.
According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 281 of the victims sustained burns that covered more than 40 percent of their bodies, including 41 people with burns to more than 80 percent of their bodies.
The National Health Insurance program has paid more than NT$765 million (US$23.73 million) to cover the victims’ medical costs, Chang said.
Meanwhile, the NHIA has filed a lawsuit against the party’s organizers and other related parties with the Shilin District Court as it seeks NT$436 million in compensation to cover the costs incurred in the first month after the accident, Chang said.
The case has yet to come before the court, she added.
In April, Lu Chung-chi (呂忠吉), the head of the local firm that organized the Color Play Asia party at the water park, was found guilty of negligence causing death and injury and was sentenced by the Shilin court to four years and 10 months in prison.
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
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.
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
‘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