Suggesting that sudden strong gusts of wind might have been behind the collapse of scaffolding at the Splendor Hotel (台中金典酒店) in Greater Taichung on Friday night, a Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) official yesterday said the true cause of the accident could not be ascertained until the completion of an investigation report, which is slated to be released tomorrow.
A large amount of scaffolding, which was erected along the facade of the five-star hotel for remodeling work, collapsed on Friday at 6:45pm. About 60 tonnes of scaffolding fell on both Jiansing Road and Taichung Harbor Road — the intersection on which the hotel is located — in the city’s West District (西區), injuring 12 people and damaging 22 vehicles.
Among the injured, a woman surnamed Tseng (曾), 45, was still in critical condition as of press time.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
Lin Chin-chi (林進基), the head of the labor inspection department at the council, said yesterday that inspection officials had examined the site and that an investigation report is scheduled to be released tomorrow.
Initial assessments suggested that a sudden strong gust of wind at that time might have been the cause of the collapse, he said.
Lin said the Splendor Hotel would shoulder the responsibility if the process of the remodeling work is found to not have met construction standards.
Taichung Deputy Mayor Hsiao Chia-chi (蕭家旗) said the hotel had applied to remodel the bottom 10 floors of the hotel, adding that the Greater Taichung Government has since suspended construction work.
Yesterday morning, the city removed the collapsed scaffolding and traffic in the area could proceed as normal.
Splendor Hotel general manager Chen Yueh-feng (陳月鳳) said the hotel would take full responsibility and compensate all losses from the accident.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS