Following several days of non-stop rain, on the afternoon of Feb. 5 four boulders rolled down a steep slope onto Huhai Road in Keelung City. Luckily, the huge rocks did not hit any passing vehicles, so it was not as bad as it could have been.
At 1pm on the day in question, the Keelung City Fire Department received a report that some boulders had rolled down onto Huhai Road at the 1.9km point and were obstructing the traffic.
When firefighters arrived at the scene, they found that no vehicles had been crushed. Keelung City Councilor Nick Chang also rushed to the scene and phoned the Keelung City Government Department of Public Works to ask them to urgently send personnel and machinery to break up the boulders and cart them away. After being notified of the incident, the Jhonghua Road Police Station of Keelung City Police Bureau’s Fourth Precinct sent officers to the scene, where they sealed off the road to stop people and vehicles from passing through.
Photo copied by Lin Chia-tung, Liberty Times 照片︰自由時報林嘉東翻攝
Chang said the four boulders that had tumbled onto Huhai Road were of various sizes and weighed a total of several dozen tonnes. He said that there have been several cases of boulders falling down from Waimu Mountain in the last few years, but fortunately they had not crushed any people or cars, although there was no guarantee that such a thing would not happen next time. Chang said he hoped the Keelung City Government would safeguard the passage of people and vehicles by adding or reinforcing rockfall prevention nets on cliffs where rockfalls are likely to occur.
(Liberty Times, translated by Julian Clegg)
受連日雨勢不斷影響，基隆市湖海路二月五日午後，有四顆巨石從路旁山壁滾下來，所幸崩落巨石並未傷及過往車輛，虛驚一場。
Photo copied by Lin Chia-tung, Liberty Times 照片︰自由時報林嘉東翻攝
基隆市消防局當天下午一時許獲報，湖海路一點九公里處有巨石從路旁山壁崩落至馬路上，影響人車通行。
消防人員趕抵時，未發現遊客或車輛被砸中；基隆市議員張秉鈞也趕到，電請基隆市政府工務處人員盡速派員調度機具來打碎巨石後吊離。基隆市警四分局中華路分駐所獲報到場封路，禁止人車通行。
張秉鈞指出，湖海路崩落的巨石共有四塊，大小不一、合計數十噸重。他指出，外木山這幾年已發生多次巨石崩落意外，還好都沒有砸到人車，但不能確保下次不會造成傷害，希望基隆市政府應盡速在可能崩落山壁加固防護網，確保人車通行安全。
Photo copied by Lin Chia-tung, Liberty Times 照片︰自由時報記者林嘉東翻攝
（自由時報林嘉東）
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