Failure to yield right-of-way was the leading contributor to fatal traffic accidents last year for the second consecutive year, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and the National Police Agency yesterday.
In 2012, drunk driving was still the leading cause of fatal accidents, followed by failure to yield violations and failure to comply with traffic signals, National Police Agency traffic division head Fang Yang-ning (方仰寧) said.
However, failure to yield violations has outranked drunk driving as the main culprit of deadly accidents for two straight years since 2013, he added.
Most violations involved vehicles on a branch road failing to yield to vehicles on an arterial road, vehicles on the left failing to yield to vehicles on the right, vehicles on a route with fewer lanes failing to yield to vehicles on a route with more lanes, or vehicles taking a turn failing to yield to vehicles going forward, he said, adding that most accidents occurred where there are no signs or traffic lights.
A total of 258 category A1 accidents — where the injured party died within 24 hours of the accident — were related to drivers and motorists’ failure to yield right-of-way last year, with 260 deaths and 107 injuries, Fang said.
Category A2 accidents — non-fatal traffic accidents — in association with failure to yield violation peaked at 63,507 cases, with 86,765 people injured, he said.
The police issued a total of 19,538 citations for failure to yield violations last year, but that failed to stem unruly driving, he said.
Failure to yield the right-of-way can be seen at junctions and alleyways, with vehicle operators not bothering to stop or slow when crossing an intersection, resulting in a great number of traffic collisions, he said.
Feng Chia University transportation professor Lee Ke-tsung (李克聰) said that Taiwanese always yield seats on public transport, but fail to yield when on the road, which he said is a “national shame.”
Lee said he has witnessed many motorists near his university who do not slow at all when crossing an intersection, suggesting that vehicle operators are unacquainted with vehicle right-of-way rules.
The agency called for motorists to come to a complete stop whenever the traffic light turns yellow or wherever there is no sign or traffic light at an intersection.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Defense experts have warned that the ‘Shandong,’ China’s second largest aircraft carrier, poses a serious threat to eastern Taiwan’s defenses The drills conducted by the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong in the Western Pacific last week were more aimed at showcasing China’s military capabilities to the US rather than toward Taiwan, a Taiwanese defense expert said yesterday. Lin Yin-yu (林穎佑), an assistant professor at Tamkang University’s Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, said the drills which involved dozens of warplanes sought to test China’s anti-access and area denial capabilities should the US and its allies attempt to interfere in a cross-strait conflict. Lin said that the latest Chinese drills coincided with a joint maritime exercise conducted by the US, South Korea
Thousands of bottles of Sriracha have been returned or destroyed after the discovery of excessive sulfur dioxide, a bleaching agent, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced on Tuesday. About 12,600 bottles totaling 9,991.8kg of the hot sauce imported from the US by Emporium Corp (河洛企業) were flagged at the border for containing illegal levels of sulfur dioxide, the FDA said in its regular border inspection announcement. Inspectors discovered 0.5g per kilogram of the common bleaching agent and preservative, higher than the 0.03g permitted, it said. As it is the first time within six months the product has been flagged, Sriracha products from
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
CHANGES: While NCCU opened the nation’s first co-ed dorm in Mucha, a recent survey showed that Taiwanese are in favor of abolishing gender segregation at high schools National Chengchi University (NCCU) has opened a co-ed dormitory, a first in Taiwan among state-funded Taiwan universities. The 22 duplexes are at the renovated “Huanan New Village,” in Taipei City’s Mucha (木柵) area, near the NCCU campus, a school official said yesterday. Twenty-two out of 37 group applications were selected in a lottery draw to select who would be chosen to live in the units, which can either be shared by up to eight students if the unit has four bedrooms, or up to 10 students if it is a five-bedroom unit, officials said. Completed in 1964 for campus staff housing,
RSS