Work at Hai Long wind farm’s on-shore construction site in Changhua County has been suspended following a carbon dioxide leak that injured 17 workers, site contractor Teco Electrics & Machinery Co said on Wednesday.
A safety examination and financial loss assessment are being conducted after the leak took place on Tuesday when workers were filling 200 cylinders with carbon dioxide, a Teco statement said.
Among the injured, seven remain hospitalized — four undergoing treatment and three under observation — while the other 10 had been discharged, the company said.
Photo courtesy of a reader
Three of the hospitalized workers remain in critical condition, with their coma scale at the lowest score of 3, indicating severe brain injury, the Changhua County Government said.
The cause of the incident is believed to be improper operation and installation of high-pressure cylinders by staff, leading to the leakage, Teco said.
The potential loss or impact is under review, and the amount of insurance to be claimed has yet to be determined, it added.
The Ministry of Labor on Tuesday said that a fine of NT$300,000 would be levied due to inadequate occupational health and safety measures.
A preliminary inspection has found that there were no measures in place to prevent gas leaks and no clear labeling of equipment.
Teco said that it would install safety equipment for workers in accordance with standard safety procedures.
It would set up anti-leakage devices and safety measures in the high-pressure cylinder room, provide re-education and training for workers, and carry out inspections, the company said.
In addition, Teco said it would deploy monitoring staff and supervisors to improve operational control.
The Changhua County Government also issued a statement, saying that it would assign occupational disaster specialists to assist the affected workers to seek compensation from their employer and provide legal consultation services.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS