The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Kaohsiung City Council caucus yesterday said that it would be making a donation to the victims of last week’s train crash through the Hualien County Government instead of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, citing its doubts about how donated funds have been handled in the past.
Fifty people were killed and more than 200 injured on Friday last week when Taroko Express No. 408, traveling from New Taipei City to Taitung, hit a crane truck at 9:28am as it was about to enter the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林).
“We are all very shocked and regret” the accident, caucus convener Tung Yen-chen (童燕珍) told a news conference in Kaohsiung.
Photo: Wang Jung-hsiang, Taipei Times
KMT councilors want to help the families of the victims, as well as those who were injured, through this difficult time, she said.
The caucus and its supporters have raised NT$1 million (US$35,174) and plans to transfer the funds to the Hualien County Government, she said.
The donation would not be made through the ministry, she said, questioning the handling of donations made by the public in the wake of the 2014 Kaohsiung gas explosions.
The Taroko Express derailment was a “manmade disaster,” KMT Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Shao-ting (黃紹庭) said.
There are questions over how donations made to the ministry’s disaster relief fund are to be used, he said, adding that it was “absurd” for the central government to set up the fund when it might be facing claims for state compensation.
The caucus wrote on Facebook that following allegations that donations made to Kaohsiung in 2014 had been misused, it has reason to question the legitimacy of fundraising efforts by the ministry.
Hualien County Commissioner Secretary Li Yu-jen (李裕仁) accepted the caucus’ donation on behalf of the government at the news conference.
The donations are to be used to provide relief to the victims’ families and those who were seriously injured in the accident, he said.
A donations oversight committee would be set up by the county government, he added.
Additional reporting by Wang Jung-hsiang
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