Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp on Friday announced proposals to improve its protocols after an MRT train crashed into a fallen construction boom, killing a passenger.
On Wednesday last week, a boom separated from a crane atop a residential building under construction near the Feng-le Park MRT Station in Nantun District (南屯), falling 31 stories onto the tracks shortly before the Green Line train departed from the station and ran into the metal wreckage.
Legal academic and indigenous rights advocate Lin Shu-ya (林淑雅) was killed and 10 people were injured.
Photo courtesy of Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp via CNA
Taichung MRT proposed three changes to its protocols together with the introduction of two potential hardware updates.
The first change would enhance and standardize its emergency alert hand signals, it said.
If a station employee witnesses a potential accident, they would be required to raise and cross their arms to form an “x” to warn employees on the train, giving them time to contact the system’s operation center and request that the train be stopped.
The second proposal is to encourage passengers who witness an accident to prevent the doors from closing, which would stop the train from leaving the station.
The third proposal would seek to ensure that Taichung MRT employees on trains can readily access their tool bags so it would be easier to stop the train.
Two hardware updates are also to be introduced, including emergency buttons in stations and smart detection devices that are better at recognizing obstacles than existing equipment, the company said.
Lin was discovered underneath a train car about 51 minutes after the collision occurred.
The train ran into the boom at 12:27pm, prompting MRT employees to evacuate passengers and help the injured at 12:58pm.
Company president Chuang Ming-tsung (莊明璁) said that Lin was not discovered for nearly an hour because the company’s standard operating procedures require employees to search the inside of cars once an emergency occurs and the doors open.
Current procedures do not include searching the outside and underneath the train cars, Chuang said, adding that the company would meet to discuss changing the procedure.
The Taiwan Bar Association on Saturday released a joint statement to convey their condolences at losing a distinguished colleague and suggested improvements to public safety procedures.
The association said that companies should employ impartial third-party experts to inspect construction sites using large-scale machinery.
It also said that traffic restrictions should be implemented in areas where construction work is occurring to allow for easy access for first responders in the event of an accident.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS