A 14-year-old boy collected dozens of traffic tickets totaling NT$250,000 over six months for driving without a license and contravening other traffic rules, New Taipei City Councilor Lin Kuo-chun (林國春) said on Sunday.
Thirty-one tickets were issued from May to October last year, after the teen used savings from a part-time job to buy a secondhand motorbike without the knowledge of his father.
His father, surnamed Wu (吳), only found out about the tickets on Jan. 31 as they were sent to the address on his official household registration, which is in Tainan, while he lives in New Taipei City, local Chinese-language media reported.
Apart from breaching traffic rules, the teenager was involved with a fraud ring and has been serving a sentence for fraud at a juvenile detention facility since the end of November, Lin said.
Wu is a single parent who works odd jobs, Lin said, expressing concern that he might not be able to pay the fines.
Wu has also been required to attend an 81-hour-long series of lectures on traffic safety, Lin added.
New Taipei City Traffic Adjudication Office head Lee Chung-tai (李忠台) said that tickets are issued to deter drivers from breaking the law.
Upon his release from the juvenile detention center, the boy would also be required to attend lectures on traffic safety, or face further punishment, he added.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
RSS