The Shilin District Court, which on Wednesday sentenced 22-year-old Yu Han-ning (游瀚甯) to 28 months in prison for reckless driving last year that caused a crash that killed two people, is drawing criticism for being too lenient.
As the first ruling in the case, the sentence can be appealed.
Many netizens denounced the court for handing down such a lenient sentence, given that it was Yu’s reckless driving that caused him to lose control of his Lamborghini LP560 and crash, killing his girlfriend, Liu Yin-tsai (劉映采), and a road-crew worker.
The court said that Yu was given a 28-month term because he turned himself in to the police after the crash and had reached a financial settlement with the families of the two victims.
The families agreed that Yu’s sentence should be reduced, the court said.
His age was another factor for leniency, as it held out the possiblity of rehabilitation, the court statement said.
Yu was charged with endangering public safety and causing death, which carries a minimum sentence of seven years, but the settlement and other factors warranted him receiving a shorter term, it said.
Yu took Liu for a joy ride on July 7 last year, and drove at a high speed — later determined to be between 140kph and 180kph — inside Taipei’s Ziqiang Tunnel (自強隧道), where the speed limit is 40kph.
Yu lost control in the tunnel, careening into three road workers, killing Liu and one man surnamed Chang (張) and seriously injuring the other two workers.
Yu sustained only minor injuries.
Yu comes from a weathy family, with his parents running the “Spiritual Ocean International Group,” which provides spiritual guidance and self-empowerment courses and has more than 300,000 members in China.
The Lamborghini was worth about NT$15 million (US$490,420 at the current exchange rate), although Yu did not own it. He had rented it from a dealership for NT$50,000 per week.
Some netizens said the ruling was another example of a court favoring the rich, while people with little money receive harsh and lengthy sentences.
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