Prosecutors in Hualien County are to charge a taxi driver with offenses against public safety and negligence after he allegedly drove his vehicle when drunk and caused an accident that killed two cyclists.
The fatal accident occurred on Saturday morning, with police officers apprehending taxi driver Chen Chien-feng (陳建峰), 38, who was transferred to the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday for questioning.
Video footage showed Chen driving his taxi at high speed southbound on the Suao-Hualien Highway when the vehicle swerved out of control and plowed sideways into oncoming traffic. The vehicle allegedly hit two men on bicycles riding north.
One cyclist was found lying in the middle of the road and the other was found on the roadside. The victims were taken by ambulance to a local hospital, but were pronounced dead shortly after.
A witness at the scene said the taxi appeared to be going faster than 100kph, which meant there was no chance for the cyclists to take evasive action.
When police arrived, the driver tried to run away and appeared to be in an incoherent state, the witness added.
Tests showed the driver had a blood alcohol level of 0.79 milligrams per liter (mg/L), which is much higher than the legal limit of 0.15mg/L.
Police officers found four empty cans of beer in the taxi, indicating the driver might have been drinking while at the wheel.
The two cyclists were a former sales manager for a computer company, surnamed Liao (廖), and a university student surnamed Chen (陳).
Family and friends of the victims said they took a train to Hualien City and planned to ride their bicycles to Suao (蘇澳) on the highway.
In other news, in the early hours of yesterday, an elderly woman crossing a street in New Taipei City’s Tucheng District (土城) was allegedly hit by a 32-year-old man, surnamed Hsieh (謝), who was riding a motorcycle.
The woman later died of her injuries, with tests showing Hsieh had blood alcohol level of 0.62mg/L.
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS