Police are investigating a construction site accident in Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) on Saturday that resulted in one death, with two workers fleeing the scene.
The contractor in charge, surnamed Chang (張), was quoted by prosecutors as saying that he had three people working at the site to dismantle a housing showroom when a metal frame collapsed, killing the driver of a skid loader, a 32-year-old Vietnamese worker surnamed Phan.
The other two hired workers who fled the scene after the accident were identified as a Taiwanese surnamed Lin (林), who drove an excavator, and another Vietnamese worker.
Photo courtesy of Taipei City Government
Background checks found that the two Vietnamese are undocumented migrant workers who overstayed the duration permitted by their work permits.
Chang hired them illegally by not registering their employment, while Lin is wanted following a past conviction for the illegal dumping of industrial waste where he jumped bail to avoid serving time in prison, police investigators said.
Investigators said video surveillance footage showed that after leaving the site, the two men went their separate ways, by taking a taxi and public transportation to Taoyuan, where both had been working before. They remained in hiding as of press time last night.
The trio hired by Chang were dismantling a housing showroom that was used to promote the sale of pre-construction units by Taipei-based Luxury Construction Co.
After the accident, officials from the Taipei City Construction Management Office and Labor Standards Division made inspections. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) also visited.
He announced a prohibition on further work at the site, as well as NT$360,000 in fines on finding various violations and an additional NT$300,000 fine for contravening provisions of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法) and the Building Act (建築法).
Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) criticized Chiang and his city government for negligence, lax enforcement of the law and for not conducting regular checks on construction sites.
Hsu said that there have been eight major accidents at construction sites in Taipei in the past nine months.
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