The Yangmingshan National Park Administration has been ordered to pay NT$3.96 million (US$133,815) compensation to a family whose mother died after being knocked over by a water buffalo while hiking in the park nearly two years ago.
The Shilin District Court ruled that it was the park’s responsibility to keep visitors out of harm’s way, noting that the Aug. 11, 2018, incident in which an 86-year-old woman surnamed Chen (陳) was badly injured was not the first time a visitor had been injured by water buffaloes in the park.
Chen had been knocked to the ground by a water buffalo on the Qingtiangang (擎天崗) trail, a lava terrace that had once housed a cattle farm during the Japanese colonial era.
About 30 water buffaloes roam the area, the park’s Web site says.
Chen died at a local hospital about two weeks after the incident, due to intracranial hemorrhaging and respiratory failure.
Accusing the park administration of failing to provide proper fencing to prevent water buffaloes from reaching the hiking trial, Chen’s children sought compensation from the government.
The incident prompted the park to replace a simple rope and wood pillar fence with a steel and concrete structure to keep the animals away from the public path.
The improved fencing proved that something needed to be done, and also amounted to an admission by the park that there had been a safety oversight, the family said.
The court ruled that the fencing at Qingtiangang was clearly inadequate at the time of the incident, and so the compensation sought by the family was reasonable.
The June 30 ruling can be appealed.
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