The Ministry of Transportation and Communications should publicize detailed safety test results for motor vehicles, New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said yesterday.
“Right now, the only information consumers receive is whether cars have passed crash safety tests,” Hsu said at a news conference calling for amendments to the Highway Act (公路法) to require the ministry to publicize specific front and side crash safety test results.
“Providing this information would help consumers choose, while hopefully providing some new incentives to car manufacturers [to improve safety],” he said.
National University of Kaohsiung law professor Chang Yu-kuang (張鈺光) said that the act was necessary because the nation lacks clear independent public rankings for motor vehicle safety, forcing consumers to rely on potentially misleading manufacturer claims.
“We have the [government-sponsored] Automotive Research and Testing Center, but its test results are commissioned by automobile manufacturers and are considered the property of the manufacturers,” Chang said, adding that amending the Highway Act would provide a clear legal foundation for mandatory publication of the center’s test results.
“Right now there is an information asymmetry between consumers and manufacturers, because all the data is in manufacturers’ hands,” he said, adding that new advertising standards are also necessary to mandate how safety should be addressed.
“Manufacturers can sell their vehicles as long as they pass, so they feel little need to reveal anything extra,” Chang said.
Department of Railways and Highways specialist Lee Chao-hsien (李昭賢) said that the ministry welcomed the proposed changes to the Highway Act and was “positive” and “open” to introducing new publication requirements on its own.
As automotive safety data is technical and specialized, the ministry has asked the center to look at international practices, with plans to announce new publication standards by the end of the year, he said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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