Prosecutors on Wednesday indicted two workers on charges of negligent manslaughter when a Taichung MRT train crashed into a crane boom that had fallen on the rail tracks, killing one person and injuring 15 others.
No charges were filed against Highwealth Construction Corp, the project operator of the construction site near the MRT route, and three other companies involved in the incident in May last year.
Highwealth had commissioned Chyi Yuh Construction Co to carry out the project. Chyi Yuh outsourced the tower crane operations on the top floor to United Machinery International Enterprise Co, which later commissioned an engineering company, Chia Yuan, to dismantle the crane structure on the day of accident.
Photo courtesy of the Taichung City Government
Last year, the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office summoned eight on-site construction personnel involved in the crane operations, along with a train attendant and an MRT platform security guard as witnesses.
Four of them were suspected of committing offenses ranging from endangering public safety to negligent injury and manslaughter, the office said at the time.
The head of Chyi Yuh, surnamed Tsai (蔡), was released on bail of NT$500,000, and the head of Chia Yuan, surnamed Liu (劉), was freed on bail of NT$300,000.
The two workers who were operating the crane, surnamed Lu (呂) and Hsu (許), were released on bail of NT$200,000 each.
Other workers and witnesses were unconditionally let go.
Lu was operating the crane under instructions from Hsu, who did not follow the code of practice and chose to horizontally move the crane when he realized its bolt and rotating disc were stuck, resulting in the diagonal shear that dropped the crane boom onto the tracks, the office said, adding that they failed to pay due attention and committed offenses of negligent injury.
However, due to insufficient evidence, Tsai, the operations supervisor, and Liu — both of whom were working on the first floor — as well as the four companies and the personnel under their charge would not be prosecuted, the office said yesterday.
The Control Yuan had conducted an official inquiry and issued a corrective measure ordering the Ministry of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp to make improvements. The Taiwan Transportation Safety Board completed its investigation in June.
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