The Chiayi District Court yesterday awarded total damages of NT$10.59 million (US$339,663) to nine Chinese tourists who suffered serious injuries in a bus accident in the city three years ago.
In August, 2012, a tour bus crashed into an underpass at the intersection of Boai and Shixian roads in Chiayi City, injuring 20 Chinese passengers, nine seriously.
The nine filed a lawsuit against the travel agency, the tour bus company and a Taiwanese bus driver.
The driver was convicted on charges of criminal negligence causing bodily harm and sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine.
It was determined that the bus crashed because it entered the underpass at a point that was too low to give clearance.
Instead of the entering in the fast lane, where the underpass had a clearance of 4.6m, the driver took the slow lane, smashing the top of the 3.8m vehicle into the underpass.
The court found the charter bus company and the driver liable, but cleared the travel agency of responsibility, since the driver was not one of its employees.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
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