The Kaohsiung City Government, LCY Chemical Corp (榮化) and China General Terminal and Distribution Corp (CGTD, 華運倉儲) have signed a tripartite agreement, with LCY Chemical Corp footing the bill for compensation for victims of the Kaohsiung gas explosions last year, the Kaohsiung City Government said.
On the night of July 31 and the early morning of Aug. 1 last year, gas pipelines running along and across major roads in Kaohsiung’s Lingya District (苓雅) exploded due to leaking propene gas. The explosions left 32 dead and 321 injured.
The Kaohsiung City Government undertook the responsibility to subrogate charges against LCY Chemical Corp and CTGD for the 3,187 victims in the aftermath of the incident.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
LCY Chemical Corp and CTGD both pledged land estimated to be worth NT$2.5 billion (US$79.84 million) in market value as collateral and wrote a clause allowing the city government to claim the first NT$200 million as a payment if the properties were to be sold.
An investigation after the explosions showed the pipelines from CGTD to LCY Chemical Corp had been depressurized during the transportation of propene gas, causing LCY Chemical to call CGTD to say that it had not received the propene.
Kaohsiung City Government officials estimated that the failure of CGTD to realize that the depressurization of the pipes might signify a leak in the hours before the explosions caused more than 10 tonnes of propene gas to leak.
Of five pipelines belonging to LCY Chemical Corp, CPC Taiwan (中油), China Petrochemical Development Corp (CPDC, 中石化), Hsin Kao Gas Co and Hsin Hsiung Gas Co respectively, only the pipeline belonging to LCY Chemical Corp — located under Ersheng Road — exhibited a leak.
The city government said that the pipelines being enclosed in underground water culverts that triggered the explosions were installed from 1991 to 1994.
A Control Yuan report said that the city government had grossly neglected its duties, as over the 23 years since the culvert had been built there had been no repairs carried out, a finding the city government disputed, saying the culverts were too dangerous to repair.
The Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office has since closed its investigation and charged three city government officials — Chao Chien-chiao (趙建喬), Chiu Ping-wen (邱炳文) and Yang Tsung-jen (楊宗仁) — who were involved in the building of the culverts in 1991 and 1992.
LCY Chemical Corp president Lee Chen Lan (李陳蘭), LCY Chemical Corp Dashe District (大社) plant head Wang His-chou (王溪洲) and the four night-shift personnel, as well as three CTGD personnel on duty that night, have been charged with causing fire unintentionally, negligent homicide on duty, negligently wounding another when on duty and negligently causing severe harm when on duty.
The family members of the 32 people who died in the explosions are to be given NT$12 million in compensation in installments over at most four years, while LCY Chemical Corp is to foot the bill and then split payments proportionately between LCY Chemical Corp, CTGD and the city government once the legal proceedings have concluded, the city government said.
Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Hsu Li-ming (許立明) said that while LCY Chemical Corp was in charge of the compensation fund, that did not mean the company had assumed the greatest legal responsibility in the case, which is still ongoing.
Additional reporting by CNA
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS