The Hualien District Court on Monday found the proprietor of a leisure sports company and three tour guides guilty of negligence in causing the death of a participant of a “river tracing” event after the four defendants ignored a police warning on the dangers of afternoon thunderstorms and flash floods.
The Hualien District Court handed down a 12-month prison sentence to Tseng Yi-wen (曾義文) for the incident, which resulted in the death of a 46-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃) in August last year.
Tseng specializes in organizing river tracing events, also known as river trekking or mountain stream climbing, where people negotiate their way upstream, usually in a mountainous region.
An investigation found that Tseng and three guides took a group of 32 people on a corporate outing at Shapotang Stream (砂婆礑溪) in Hualien’s Siulin Township (秀林).
Local police officers forbade the group from going on the trip, citing inclement weather and the possible dangers, but Tseng instructed his guides to take the group to another spot further downstream, bypassing the police checkpoint.
Police Captain Yu Kuo-hua (游國華) said he told Tseng and his group not to go river tracing that afternoon since thick clouds were gathering and it looked like it was going to rain, which it did shortly afterward.
The downpour led to flash floods with water gushing down the stream, scattering the group and leaving many of them floundering in the water.
Although Tseng and the three guides were able swimmers and managed to rescue most of the group, Huang went missing. She was later found drowned after her body became stuck between rocks.
The judge found Tseng and the three guides guilty, as the guidelines of the Chinese Taipei Stream Association say that one guide is required for every six river tracing participants, while more guides are required if the group contains mostly inexperienced people.
The judge also cited the guideline which states that guides should not engage in the activity during storms or heavy rain, because mountainous areas are prone to flash floods.
In related news, a storm on Sunday afternoon triggered a flash flood which trapped eight river tracing enthusiasts in Fongmei Stream (風美溪) in Miaoli County’s Nanchuang Township’s (南庄).
The local fire department dispatched more than 20 firefighters and it took them more than four hours to rescue the eight enthusiasts.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai
RSS