A court has handed a mother in central Taiwan a one-year jail sentence for failure to place her eight-month old baby in a child safety seat, which led to brain damage after they were involved in a car crash.
The Nantou County District Court on Friday last week found a 21-year-old mother, surnamed Liao (廖), guilty of negligence resulting in serious injuries.
Liao in September 2021 took her baby for a ride in a car driven by a man surnamed Lu (盧), and held the baby on her lap instead of in a safety seat. While driving along National Highway No. 3, Lu got into a traffic accident when he did not brake in time and hit the vehicle in front of them, the ruling said.
Photo: Taipei Times
Liao, who was sitting on the front passenger seat, sustained minor injuries, but the baby was seriously injured, it said, adding that medics and doctors administered emergency treatment.
Doctors at the hospital were unable to observe the baby overnight, as Liao had left and headed to a friend’s residence in Nantou City for recuperation, the ruling said.
Five days later, she went to a hospital emergency room after the baby displayed more severe symptoms.
The baby was diagnosed with brain hemorrhage and hypoxic encephalopathy due to trauma from the car accident, which had resulted in cerebral edema, broken femur and tibia bones, and other medical conditions, the ruling said.
After undergoing regular hospital treatment for about one year, the diagnosis confirmed that the baby had sustained cerebral atrophy on the right side of her brain and irreversible damage to her central nervous system, leaving her entire left side paralyzed, it said.
Social workers testified that the baby displayed no signs of physical abuse, while an investigation found that Liao had contravened road regulations by not strapping the baby into a child safety seat.
When the collision occurred, the baby hit her head on the car’s dashboard, inflicting trauma to her head that resulted in cerebral atrophy and permanent paralysis, they said.
The judge ruled that Liao should be held accountable, and found her guilty of negligence causing serious injuries and handed her a one-year prison sentence.
It was the first ruling and the case can be appealed.
Commenting on the case, lawyer Lee Hong-wei (李鴻維), a former judge and public prosecutor, said the sentence would serve as a warning that parents would be held accountable for the safety and welfare of their children, and would face charges and penalties for mishaps that resulted in the injury or death of their children.
Lee said drivers must know that the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例) states “drivers are legally the ‘guarantor’ responsible for the safety and prevention of criminal offense when there is a child onboard.”
Under the Civil Code, the driver must also pay compensation for damages or medical conditions when a victim files a lawsuit, he said.
Lee added that under the Regulations on Implementation of Child Safety Seats in Automobiles (小型車附載幼童安全乘坐實施及宣導辦法) a toddler under the age of four and weighing less than 18kg must be strapped into a child safety seat.
Additional reporting by Lin Chia-tung
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
RSS