The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) on Wednesday penalized 12 of its personnel deemed responsible for a Taroko Express train crash in Hualien County on April 2 that killed 49 people and injured more than 200.
The agency released a list of 12 people reprimanded for negligent supervision of a construction site from which a crane truck slid onto the tracks, causing Taiwan’s deadliest train crash in decades. Former minister of transportation and communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) last month stepped down from his post in reaction to the incident.
Among those penalized were TRA Chief Secretary Dennis Ju (朱來順), who was given a minor demerit, and the head of the agency’s Hualien section public works division who received a major demerit.
The director of the TRA department of public works, as well as the on-site head and the engineer responsible for the construction project, received two minor demerits each.
After the Railway Bureau and the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board release investigation reports of the train crash, the TRA would consider further penalties, the agency said.
The TRA said it has implemented measures to solve safety problems that led to the incident, including a complete suspension of construction work near railway tracks, adding that other government agencies would conduct safety inspections before construction could resume.
The measures also include increased safety management at construction sites, and the distribution of mobile phones to personnel responsible for railway and construction site safety.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
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