An electric-scooter rider was left stranded near the top of the 3,275m Wuling Pass on Saturday after his batteries died.
The rider was eventually rescued by a police officer on patrol, the Hualien County police said.
The rider, surnamed Wu (吳), had already crossed Provincial Highway 14A’s highest point after setting out from Taichung, but was forced to turn back just a few kilometers into his descent into Hualien due to a road closure, police said in a statement.
An officer surnamed Lin (林) found a helpless-looking Wu stranded with several kilometers still left to climb to the summit of the Wuling Pass. With the nearest battery-swapping GoStation located at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Qingjing Farm about 36km away, Lin drove Wu and his two Gogoro batteries to a nearby bus station.
Wu boarded a bus at about 10am on Saturday, before returning to his scooter with fully charged batteries at about 2:15pm and resuming his journey, police said.
Police said Wu was the third Gogoro rider this year to be found stuck near the top of the Wuling Pass due to dead batteries, adding that he had been lucky because a seasonal bus was running.
In a previous case in February, when no such service was running, the stranded person had to wait almost five hours before police were able to get him back on the road.
A pair of Gogoro batteries have a maximum range of about 55km on the steep climbs of the Wuling Pass, but there are nearly 109km separating battery-swapping GoStations on the two provincial highways, 14A and 8, that cover the route.
Police called on electric-scooter riders to appeal to the Taiwan-based Gogoro to build extra GoStations along the scenic route to prevent similar strandings.
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