Up-to-date testing protocols for car safety seat certification should be implemented, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, a child safety group and industry representatives said yesterday.
Last year, 1,395 Taiwanese children died in car crashes, up 34 percent from child fatalities in 2020, Jing Chuang Child Safety Foundation executive director Hsu Ya-jen (許雅荏) told a news conference in Taipei, citing a government-run Web site at roadsafety.tw/.
The annual number of children killed in car crashes has increased for four consecutive years, she said, adding that car seat safety was a key factor in preventing deaths and serious injuries.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Taiwan uses the outdated ECE R44 regulations for car seat safety, which had been phased out in the EU since the bloc introduced the ECE R124 regulations in 2013, she said.
The old standard stipulated that the design of children’s safety seats should focus on the intended user’s age and weight instead of size, and it lacked tests for side collisions, while testing products on crash dummies capable of simulating only injuries to the head and sternum, Hsu said.
The ECE R124 regulations are based on body size to reflect actual safety needs, test safety in different types of collisions and use dummies also capable of simulating injuries to the neck and abdomen, she said.
Production of ECE R44-compliant seats have ceased altogether, meaning Taiwan would soon run out of import sources should the nation fail to amend its safety standards, she said.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs should update car seat safety standards and reduce dependency on third parties by establishing a domestic testing capability, DPP Legislator Lin Yueh-chin (林月琴) said.
The nation might require separate testing protocols better anticipating local conditions, she said.
Taiwan Toy and Children’s Articles Manufacturers Association deputy chairman Kuo Shih-chieh (郭時杰) said a failure to update safety standards would disrupt the industry’s ability to import or export products.
Regulators should introduce domestic legal standards equivalent to ECE R124 and upgrade safety test labs to protect children and the competitiveness of the industry, he said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
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