Prosecutors yesterday indicted seven people in connection to the Taroko Express No. 408 derailment in Hualien County on April 2, in which 49 people died and more than 200 were injured.
Among the indicted were Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and into which the train crashed; his Vietnamese assistant, Hoa Van Hao; and workers at United Geotech Inc (聯合大地工程) and Tung Hsin Construction (東新營造), which undertook construction work near the site of the crash, Hualien prosecutor Chou Fang-yi (周芳怡) said.
Lee, who owns Yi Hsiang Industry (義祥工業社), was indicted for negligence resulting in death and property damage, causing an accident involving a public transportation vehicle, fleeing the scene of an accident, document forgery, accounting fraud, and breaches of the Government Procurement Act (政府採購法), she said.
Photo: Wang Chin-yi, Taipei Times
Hoa, who was near the site at the time of the crash, and Chang Chi Fu-tsai (張齊富財), a labor safety and health inspector at United Geotech, were charged with negligence resulting in death, she said.
Lee Chin-fu (李進福) a United Geotech construction superintendent, was charged with negligence in causing death and document forgery, she said.
Tung Hsin director Huang
Ping-ho (黃平和) and Lin Chang-ching (林長清), a site supervisor, were charged with contravening the Government Procurement Act, she said.
Huang’s son, Huang Wen-li (黃文利), who is listed as the owner of Tung Hsin Construction, was indicted for accounting fraud, tax evasion, falsifying business documents, and giving deceiving information on work operations and progress on the project, she said.
Prosecutors charged Tung Hsin with breaches of the Government Procurement Act, Chou said.
The investigation is still ongoing, and three other suspects could face charges, she said.
They are Yang Chin-lang (楊金郎), an engineer who allegedly lent his license to Tung Hsin so that it could win the tender for the project, Hsiung Teh-yu (熊德育), a construction superintendent at the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) Hualien Engineering Section, and Pan Tang-yi (潘堂益), a supervising engineer for the section, Chou said.
Prosecutors said they had conducted searches in 23 locations and questioned 109 people, finding that Lee Yi-hsiang’s and Hoa’s mishandling of the crane truck and an excavator might have caused the crash.
Fraudulent business practices, might also have contributed to Taiwan’s deadliest train crash in Taiwan in 40 years.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)