The Tainan branch of the Taiwan High Court on Friday handed down five-year sentences for “negligent homicide” to five defendants over the deaths of 115 people in a housing complex that were killed when an earthquake hit the city in February last year.
The court said it withdrew a ruling made by the Tainan District Court in November last year and issued a new verdict, because prosecutors had asked to add another injured person to the case.
In Friday’s ruling, the defendants were given a five-year sentence and fined NT$90,000 each — the same sentence handed down by the lower court. It is the maximum penalty for “homicide through professional negligence.”
The defendants included Lin Ming-hui (林明輝), owner of Weiguan Corp, which built the Weiguan Jinlong housing complex in 1993.
The complex collapsed following a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on Feb. 6 last year, killing 115 people and injuring 96.
The other four defendants — responsible for designing and building the units — were Hung Hsien-han (洪仙汗), manager of the construction company’s design department; Cheng Tung-hsu (鄭東旭), contracted structural engineer for the project; and architects Chang Kuei-pao (張魁寶) and Cheng Chin-kuei (鄭進貴).
An investigation found that the complex was poorly designed and built, and that inferior materials were used to save costs.
Investigators found that Lin had ordered Hung to minimize costs during the design and planning stages, as well as use less than the required number of reinforcements for beam column joints.
Hung was also instructed to reduce the size of some pillars to further cut costs.
Cheng Tung-hsu failed to factor in the weight of some of the pillars and beams, reducing the building’s net load-bearing capacity by 44.3 percent and earthquake resistance by 16.3 percent.
Meanwhile, Cheng Chin-kui and Chang helped the company acquire construction certification and other documents without properly supervising the design work, investigators said.
The combination of negligence and cost-cutting led to the collapse of the building that resulted in the loss of life, investigators said.
A survivor of the collapse on Friday said they hope that the government improves construction related laws to ensure building safety and prevent similar incidents.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
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