The number of fatal traffic crashes on freeways, or A1-type accidents, as well as casualties in such incidents, rose by more than 50 percent from January to last month, the Freeway Bureau said on Tuesday.
Twenty-nine accidents that occurred in the past five months led to deaths immediately or within 24 hours, a 55 percent increase from the same period last year, bureau data showed.
Thirty people were killed and 20 injured, up 56 percent and 52.6 percent respectively, the bureau said.
Photo courtesy of the Chiayi County Fire Bureau via CNA
About 62 percent of the A1-type accidents were caused by people changing lanes without using their turn signals or not paying attention to road situations ahead, the bureau said, adding that approximately 45 percent of the crashes occurred from 10pm to 6am.
Eighteen of the A1-type accidents were caused by sedan vehicles, it added.
The data showed that drivers had failed to fasten their seat belts in 10 of the A1-type accidents, the bureau said.
People were driving faster than the freeway speed limit in 13 of the incidents, it said.
“Among the 10 accidents in which drivers did not fasten their seat belts, seven of them were driving above the speed limit. This shows that drivers who do not buckle up are likely to speed as well,” the bureau said.
Eight of the 29 A1-type accidents also involved driver fatigue, it said, adding that this shows some drivers embark on trips without first getting enough rest.
“Given the severity of the [COVID-19] pandemic in the nation, we encourage people to reduce road trips as much as possible. However, if travel is unavoidable, drivers should make sure that they get enough rest before hitting the road, fasten their seat belt, operate within the speed limit and watch the road ahead,” the bureau said.
Drivers who do not fasten their seat belts when driving would be fined NT$3,000 to NT$6,000, under the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例), it said.
The fine for speeding on freeways is NT$3,000 to NT$24,000, the bureau said, adding that people driving more than 60kph over the speed limit would be ordered to stop driving immediately, and face suspension of their vehicle license plates for six months or revocation of their driver’s license.
In other news, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) apologized to lawmakers for the inconvenience experienced by freeway commuters and logistics service operators during the Dragon Boat Festival long weekend, due to tightened traffic control measures that the bureau implemented to curb the spread of COVID-19.
The average traffic volume during the three-day long weekend was 47.4 million vehicle kilometers, down 59 percent compared with the same long weekend last year, bureau data showed.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater