A report into a deadly rail incident in Taichung on May 10, in which a crane boom fell onto an MRT track, said that station staff had only 15 seconds to stop a train before it smashed into the crane.
The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday published a report detailing issues related to the incident that resulted in the death of one passenger and injured 15.
When the crane boom fell from a construction site near Feng-le Park Station onto the Taichung MRT’s Green Line, a security guard on the platform waved to the onboard MRT staff member in a bid to get her to stop the train, the report said.
Photo courtesy of Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp via CNA
However, the onboard staff member failed to understand what the security guard was signaling, said the board, an independent government agency responsible for investigating transportation incidents.
The crane boom fell onto the track at 12:27:03pm on May 10 and the train departed the station 26 seconds later at 12:27:29pm, the report said.
Despite the security guard waving to warn the onboard staff member about the crane boom two seconds after it hit the elevated tracks at 12:27:31pm, the staff member had little time to react, the report said, adding that the train crashed into the crane at 12:27:46pm, 15 seconds after the guard tried to warn those on board.
In the wake of the incident, Taichung Metro chief of operations Hsu Tai-ming (許泰銘) told reporters that stopping the train from the traffic control center or activating the onboard emergency brake via a computer take about 20 seconds, indicating that MRT staff had insufficient time to prevent the crash.
The incident occurred when workers at a Highwealth Construction Corp site near Feng-le Park Station were dismantling a dock tower crane, the report said, adding that the crane boom fell because the machine being used to lower it was faulty.
Over the past six months, the board said that it has inspected surveillance footage recorded at the metro station, inside the train and provided by the traffic control center, while also reviewing documents, procedures, systems and regulations.
An additional 21 people were also interviewed, including the operator of Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp, personnel from the Taichung Transportation Bureau, the construction site operator and the crane boom supplier.
The final draft of the report is to be finished by May, the board said.
It is to include data, analyses and findings from the crash, as well as proposals for improvements.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
RSS