New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) today said he is to order a third-party review of two incidents last week in which city-operated elevators malfunctioned and fell soon after undergoing maintenance.
The first of the incidents occurred on Tuesday last week, when the cable of an elevator at the New Taipei City Funeral Parlor in Banciao District (板橋) snapped, causing it to drop from the building's second floor to the ground, lightly injuring the three workers inside.
Photo: Chen I-shao, Taipei Times
Yesterday afternoon, a pedestrian overpass elevator near New Taipei City Hall Square, where a kids' Halloween event was taking place, also malfunctioned and fell from the second floor to the ground.
A 55-year-old woman in the elevator sustained a broken foot in the fall, while her eight-year-old nephew was treated for lacerations.
According to the city government, both malfunctioning elevators had recently undergone scheduled maintenance and inspections, on Oct. 7 and Oct. 17 respectively.
During an appearance at the New Taipei City Council today, Hou said that following the incidents, he ordered that safety inspections be conducted on all public, city-operated elevators within the next two months.
Beyond that, the city government would also hire an organization to conduct a third-party inspection to find out why the elevators malfunctioned so soon after undergoing maintenance, Hou said.
The city would cover the medical expenses of those hurt in the accidents, and would help them seek financial compensation once legal responsibility for the failures has been determined, he added.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
WEATHER Typhoon forming: CWA A tropical depression is expected to form into a typhoon as early as today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the storm’s path remains uncertain. Before the weekend, it would move toward the Philippines, the agency said. Some time around Monday next week, it might reach a turning point, either veering north toward waters east of Taiwan or continuing westward across the Philippines, the CWA said. Meanwhile, the eye of Typhoon Kalmaegi was 1,310km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, as of 2am yesterday, it said. The storm is forecast to move through central
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS