The Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday that increased police crackdowns and better law enforcement since July have resulted in a nationwide decline in the death toll from accidents involving gravel trucks.
Six months after reforms to regulations governing gravel trucks and drivers took effect, the ministry's road safety committee announced the success of the implementation of the measures.
According to the report, around 296,700 infringements involving gravel trucks were recorded from July 1999 until December 1999. This represents about 49,000 a month, or a 39 percent increase over the first half of the year. Major violations such as speeding and overloading account for around 34,000 a month, or a 30 percent increase over the first half of the year.
Violations resulting in fatal traffic accidents numbered five per month, three deaths less per month than the first half of the year. Non-fatal injuries averaged three a month, just one third of those reported prior to reforms.
The improvement comes after years of traffic problems with the large trucks, whose drivers tended to show little respect for either the law or peoples' lives.
Jason Chang (
"We often see good plans, but many reforms are not policed thoroughly enough or for long enough," Chang said. "[The gravel truck industry] has to understand that it must pay the price if drivers break the law."
The report also found that some cities and counties appeared to be safer than others, as gauged by fewer gravel truck accidents. They include Kaohsiung City, Hsinchu City, Chiayi City and Hsinchu and Penghu counties.
Keelung City and Ilan and Chiayi counties are among the most dangerous places as measured by the same criteria.
UPDATED (3:40pm): A suspected gas explosion at a shopping mall in Taichung this morning has killed four people and injured 20 others, as emergency responders continue to investigate. The explosion occurred on the 12th floor of the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi in Situn District (西屯) at 11:33am. One person was declared dead at the scene, while three people were declared deceased later after receiving emergency treatment. Another 20 people sustained major or minor injuries. The Taichung Fire Bureau said it received a report of the explosion at 11:33am and sent rescuers to respond. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it said. The National Fire
ACCOUNTABILITY: The incident, which occured at a Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Department Store in Taichung, was allegedly caused by a gas explosion on the 12th floor Shin Kong Group (新光集團) president Richard Wu (吳昕陽) yesterday said the company would take responsibility for an apparent gas explosion that resulted in four deaths and 26 injuries at Shin Kong Mitsukoshi Zhonggang Store in Taichung yesterday. The Taichung Fire Bureau at 11:33am yesterday received a report saying that people were injured after an explosion at the department store on Section 3 of Taiwan Boulevard in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯). It sent 56 ambulances and 136 paramedics to the site, with the people injured sent to Cheng Ching Hospital’s Chung Kang Branch, Wuri Lin Shin Hospital, Taichung Veterans General Hospital or Chung
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘LAWFUL USE’: The last time a US warship transited the Taiwan Strait was on Oct. 20 last year, and this week’s transit is the first of US President Donald Trump’s second term Two US military vessels transited the Taiwan Strait from Sunday through early yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement, the first such mission since US President Donald Trump took office last month. The two vessels sailed south through the Strait, the ministry said, adding that it closely monitored nearby airspace and waters at the time and observed nothing unusual. The ministry did not name the two vessels, but the US Navy identified them as the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson and the Pathfinder-class survey ship USNS Bowditch. The ships carried out a north-to-south transit from