Three Hsinchu City Government officials have received demerits after an incident at the city’s International Kite Festival (國際風箏節) on Aug. 30 in which a three-year-old girl became entangled in the tail of a giant kite and was tossed about in the air for about 30 seconds.
The company contracted to run the festival has also been fined.
The girl, surnamed Lin (林), sustained abrasions on her face and neck during the incident, which was captured on cellphone videos that received widespread domestic and international news and social media coverage.
After conducting an investigation, the Hsinchu City Government said that Hsinchu Economic Development Department (EDD) Director Chang Li-ko (張力可) would be given a major demerit.
His deputy, Li Po-chih (林柏志), and EDD Fishery Section chief Hsieh Chun-hung (謝濬鴻) would each receive a minor demerit, as the EDD and its sections had been responsible for organizing the two-day festival at Nanliao Fishing Harbor (南寮), the city government said.
The company contracted to run the festival was also fined NT$272,625 (US$9,256) after the investigation determined there had been a lack of safety measures and supervision by the ground staff, in addition to the costs associated with canceling the rest of the festival after the incident.
The contractor was also ordered to cover all the costs of the girl’s emergency treatment at a local hospital, and follow-up therapy sessions.
The organizers and on-site security staff had failed to establish clear spaces to separate the public from a giant navigator kite, which is usually used to carry smaller and less stable kites up into the air.
Some of the festival staff were putting candies into a stuffed panda toy that was to be attached to the end of a navigator kite to be later dropped from the sky when a sudden gust of wind pulled the kite out of the hands of staff members holding it, entangling Lin around the middle of the kite’s tail and pulling her up into the air.
At one point it was estimated that she was carried as high as the top of an eight-story building, before staff and members of the crowd were able to lower the kite toward the ground and pull her to safety.
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