Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) has submitted a verbal resignation in the wake of the Taroko Express No. 408 train crash two days ago, Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) said yesterday.
In a call, Lin told Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) that he wished to step down, to take responsibility for the deadliest accident involving a Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) train in 40 years.
As of press time last night, the Hualien District Prosecutors’ Office had revised the death toll from 51, which had been reported on the previous day, to 50, after DNA testing showed that what had been considered two sets of remains belonged to the same person.
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
According to Lo, Su commended Lin for wanting to take responsibility, but said that the focus right now is on repairing the railway line damaged in the incident on Friday last week.
Properly dealing with issues in the aftermath of a tragedy is also a way of taking responsibility, Su told the minister, and he declined to discuss the offer at this time, Lo added.
Separately yesterday, Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said that while President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) approved of Lin’s conscientiousness, she thought that now was not the time to discuss a resignation.
Earlier yesterday, Lin had told reporters that he would “shoulder the responsibility of keeping damage from the accident to a minimum.”
Lin said that he would not shirk his duty and would take the required actions after rescue and repair efforts were completed.
Asked whether he had submitted a formal resignation, Lin would only say that his priority was to minimize the damage caused by the crash.
The accident occurred on Friday at 9:28am, when a southbound Taroko Express train slammed into a crane truck on the tracks near the entrance to the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien County before crashing into the tunnel wall.
The TRA and the ministry, which oversees the agency, are facing scrutiny over a number of issues, such as the lack of proper fencing along the track and the possibility of having sold too many standing-only tickets.
Since former TRA director-general Chang Chen-yuan (張政源) retired in January, the agency has been without a permanent director. The position is being filled in an acting capacity by Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chi Wen-chung (祈文中).
On Saturday, Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材), another deputy minister of transportation and communications, said that Lin was working hard to find the right person to fill the job.
Lin and Chi are scheduled to report to lawmakers about the incident at a legislative hearing on Wednesday.
Additional reporting by Reuters
A debt dispute between a restaurant owner and a criminal ring might be behind a bizarre cockroach attack at the Taipei eatery on Monday night while it was hosting a police gathering, Taipei Police Commissioner Chen Jia-chang (陳嘉昌) said yesterday. Preliminary findings of a police investigation into the case at the G House Taipei suggest that the unusual incident might have been directed at the restaurant’s owner, who allegedly owes money to the Bamboo Union, Chen said. The suspects were Bamboo Union members and there was no evidence indicating that the cockroaches were targeted at the police officers at the restaurant, he
Taiwan’s armed forces should closely monitor China’s development of a new tanker aircraft, as it would significantly boost the Chinese air force’s capability to carry out long-range raids, a military expert said on Wednesday. Ou Si-fu (歐錫富), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said in an online article that China is developing a tanker variant of its Y-20 military transport aircraft, known as the Y-20U. The Y-20 has a maximum take-off weight of 220 tonnes and the tanker variant is expected to carry up to 60 tonnes of fuel, more than three times the maximum
TRAVELING WHILE CONTAGIOUS: The highest risk of infection is indoors, especially in settings where people take off their masks to eat and drink, an expert warned The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday posted a list of places visited by people who were recently diagnosed with COVID-19 while they were likely contagious, urging people who visited the sites at the same time to practice self-health management. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said that confirmed case No. 1,129 — a woman in her 60s who works at Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport, a designated quarantine facility, and tested positive on Friday — visited Chiayi between Friday last week and Monday. On the first day of her trip, she visited the Big Chiayi
QUARANTINE BLUNDER: The government should be responsible for a cluster infection at a hotel, as the cases have caused panic, DPP Legislator Chen Ming-wen said The Ministry of Transportation and Communications should make it mandatory for pilots and flight attendants, as well as their family members, to be vaccinated in view of a cluster of COVID-19 cases at the Novotel Taipei Taoyuan International Airport hotel, lawmakers said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee yesterday. The cluster infection at the hotel had led to 28 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, including hotel workers, as well as China Airlines flight and cabin crew, and their family members. The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday tightened quarantine requirements for pilots and flight attendants, who must quarantine
RSS