The Aviation Safety Council (ASC) in August is to be restructured and designated as a national transportation safety council, responsible for investigating major transportation accidents, which could include the deadly Puyuma train crash in October last year, it said on Thursday.
The Legislative Yuan this month passed an amendment to the Organic Law of the Aviation Safety Council (飛航安全調查委員會組織法) to transform the agency, which is currently tasked with investigating aviation accidents, into a body that probes marine, railway, highway and aviation transportation accidents.
The amendment came after 18 people were killed and 210 injured in the derailment of eastbound Puyuma Express Train No. 6432 near Sinma (新馬) Train Station in Yilan County on Oct. 21 last year, the deadliest railway accident in Taiwan in nearly three decades.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
ASC Chairman Young Hong-tsu (楊宏智), who has a background in engineering, said that once the new council begins operations, its first order of business would be whether to begin a new investigation of the derailment.
It is highly likely the investigation will be reopened, as the report released by the Cabinet’s investigation task force in November last year was insufficiently comprehensive and widely questioned, Young said.
If a new investigation is launched, it would involve a full-scale inspection of all Puyuma express trains and the entire Taiwan Railways Administration system using a more rigorous scientific methodology to better determine what caused the derailment, he said.
The report on the incident presented by the Cabinet was based on insufficient evidence due to the low sophistication of on-site investigative mechanisms, he said.
Furthermore, the report concluded that the cause was speeding, but failed to explore the reasons for the speeding, he said.
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
STEERING FAILURE: The first boat of its class is experiencing teething issues as it readies for acceptance by the navy, according to a recent story about rudder failure The Hai Kun (海鯤), the nation’s first locally built submarine, allegedly suffered a total failure of stern hydraulic systems during the second round of sea acceptance trials on June 26, and sailors were forced to manually operate the X-rudder to turn the submarine and return to port, news Web site Mirror Daily reported yesterday. The report said that tugboats following the Hai Kun assisted the submarine in avoiding collisions with other ships due to the X-rudder malfunctioning. At the time of the report, the submarine had completed its trials and was scheduled to begin diving and surfacing tests in shallow areas. The X-rudder,
DEMAND: The government should enact regulations in line with Austria and Germany to incorporate vegan nutrition into school meals, an advocate said More than 1,000 people yesterday marched in Taipei to promote veganism, calling for legislation to incorporate vegan diets into school lunches and the national net zero emissions program. Participants gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building for the march, which was organized by the Vegan Action Network (VAN). Former ambassador to Chad Chiu Chung-jen (邱仲仁), actor Yankee Yang (楊子儀) and actress Cindy Lien (連俞涵) attended the event. VAN member Marianne Chao (趙梅君) said that the campaign aimed to urge the government to promote vegan diets across schools and government agencies via legislation and national policies, which would help build
RSS