More than 400,000 people were killed or injured in traffic incidents each year from 2014 to last year, a National Road Traffic Safety Commission report said on Wednesday.
Deaths and injuries caused by traffic incidents have generally risen over the past 10 years, the report said.
While 2013 saw about 375,000 deaths and injuries from traffic incidents, there were more than 400,000 in 2014, 2015 and last year.
Photo: copy by Chen Wen-chan, Taipei Times
This year, the number is again expected to hit 400,000, more than Keelung’s population of 370,000, the report added.
The number of people who died within 30 days after an incident has declined over the past decade, the commission said.
However, in the past few years, an average of 3,000 people died within 30 days of an incident each year, more than the number of deaths from the 921 Earthquake, it added.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications has set a goal of reducing 30-day traffic-related fatalities from 3,000 this year to 2,500 in 2019.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) said the ministry’s campaign has generated some results, adding that the nation has also introduced stricter punishments for traffic violations.
“However, it is still heartbreaking to hear reports of some people driving around Taiwan in eight hours,” as such behavior demonstrates a disregard for the safety of others on the road, he said.
The nation still has work to do to improve traffic conditions, Hochen said, adding that people should consider road safety part of their responsibility.
Efforts to improve road safety should be made one of the indicators to evaluate the competitiveness of a municipality, he added.
(The headline has been corrected since publication.)
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS