Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Kuo-shu (黃國書) yesterday called on the Ministry of the Interior to create new safety guidelines for spontaneous mass gatherings, four days after a stampede at a Halloween street party in South Korea killed 156 people.
The Seoul crush occurred because no one managed the crowd, as an unexpectedly large number of people gathered at venues in the capital’s Itaewon area after the city lifted its COVID-19 mask requirements, Huang told a news conference at the legislature in Taipei.
Taiwan must think ahead to minimize public safety risks as health authorities begin to phase out COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, which could result in large crowds gathering in areas to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve, he said.
Photo: Hsieh Chun-lin, Taipei Times
The Ministry of the Interior drafted Taiwan’s safety guidelines for large-scale events in the wake of a fire at a New Taipei City water park in 2015 that killed 15 people and injured 508, he said.
The guidelines do not have provisions for spontaneously occurring mass events or offer specific instructions for local authorities to enforce safety rules, he said.
A review of city and county ordinances shows that only two of Taiwan’s 22 jurisdictions have established safety standards for mass gatherings and promulgated penalties for noncompliance, while four jurisdictions have established standards, but not penalties, he said.
Sixteen jurisdictions have established no regulations whatsoever to protect the public from the hazards of mass gatherings, he said.
Mechanisms are needed to prevent overcrowding before crowd density exceeds the safety threshold of six people per square meter, said Chang Kuo-sung (張國頌), president of the Taiwan Association of Emergency Medical Services at Mass Gatherings.
The National Fire Agency has the authority to redirect or disperse mass gatherings, while the organizers of some events must apply for a permit from the local government, agency fire prevention section official Shen Yi-che (沈義哲) said.
Local police usually have well-developed plans to deal with large gatherings linked to temple events or popular tourist sites, National Police Agency public safety division chief Lin Hsin-hsiung (林信雄) said.
Such plans typically include traffic controls at key points and evacuation procedures, he added.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS