Outside experts should monitor reforms at the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), the Taiwan Railway Labor Union said in Taipei yesterday, as today marks the one-month anniversary of a deadly Taroko Express train crash.
On April 2, Taroko Express No. 408, traveling from New Taipei City to Taitung, derailed as it entered the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林) after it hit a crane truck that had slid down a slope from a work site onto the rails. Forty-nine people died and more than 200 were injured, making it the nation’s most devastating railway accident in decades.
About a dozen union members and their supporters protested in front of the Executive Yuan, calling for oversight of TRA reforms.
Photo: CNA
The heads of the administration and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications were replaced after the accident, but reform plans seem unlikely to solve the daily problems faced by frontline employees, union secretary-general Wei Yu-ling (魏豫綾) said.
To improve safety standards, the Executive Yuan should bring in a third-party company to oversee the reforms, instead of allowing TRA officials and employees to tackle the problems on their own, Wei said.
While the Executive Yuan plans to reorganize the ministry as the “Ministry of Transportation and Construction,” it seems that would only increase the number of office sections and leaders inside the agency, union member Hsu Chung-neng (徐仲能) said.
If the ministry is really determined to advance railway safety, it should invite outside experts to monitor the reform, rather than simply increasing the number of official positions, he said.
The government should invite experts to form a Cabinet-level task force to help the TRA inspect its existing work procedures, equipment and personnel distribution, so it can uproot the problems that make the nation’s railway system lag behind other transportation industries, the union said.
The union also urged the government to heed the opinions of frontline employees and allow union members to participate in the reform process.
Instead of creating more penalties for contractors, the government should improve the mechanisms for reporting objects falling on railways, the training and allocation of employees, and safety inspection procedures, it said.
A video allegedly featuring retired general Kao An-kuo (高安國) calling on Taiwanese military officers to surrender to China and overthrow the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government has sparked outrage and calls for him to be charged with treason. The video, titled “A message to Taiwanese military officers,” allegedly shows Kao saying: “I call on commanding officers of our military troops to stand up for Chinese nationalism, to take up this duty under heaven’s mandate to save Taiwanese from oppression and terrible suffering.” Dressed in military fatigues and a beret, the lieutenant general called on officers to overthrow the “fraudulent DPP regime,”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday rejected the claim Beijing has been making about Taiwan’s status, while thanking US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman for raising concerns about Taiwan during her meeting with Chinese officials. Sherman met with Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) on a visit to Tianjin on Sunday and Monday, with Wang urging Washington not to infringe on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Taiwan is part of China, a fundamental fact that would never change, and China has the right to take any action needed to restrain Taiwanese independence, Wang said, urging Washington to abide
HASTY REVIEW CLAIMS: Medigen’s vaccine, which is to start phase 3 clinical trials later this year, should not have received emergency use authorization, Hau said Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) vice chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) is to appeal the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) authorization of Medigen Vaccine Biologics’ COVID-19 vaccine, he said yesterday. The administration on July 19 granted Medigen emergency use authorization, even though the drugmaker had not yet completed phase 3 clinical trials. The government should not authorize the use of a vaccine that has not completed phase 3 trials, Hau said in Taipei on the sidelines of an event to distribute boxed meals with former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Broadcasting Corp of China chairman Jaw Shaw-kong (趙少康). Hau said the government had politicized
ELDERLY AT RISK: Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang said 90 percent of those who died in a local outbreak were aged 60 or older Taiwan won plaudits for its successful containment of COVID-19 last year, which made its recent virus resurgence all the more surprising. Data show that it was unusually deadly, as well. While Taiwan has seen fewer than 800 COVID-19 deaths in total, 500 of them occurred last month alone, amid its biggest virus wave to date. The pathogen got through the stringent border curbs that had kept local infections at bay for most of last year, seeding an outbreak that tore through the then-largely unvaccinated elderly population. This pushed the case-fatality ratio to as high as that seen in Italy and the UK
RSS