A motorist who crashed into a school cycling tour in Changhua, injuring seven students, was held incommunicado last night for suspected drug driving, the police said today.
The driver, a 41-year-old man surnamed Hsiao(蕭), had taken heroin, amphetamines and etomidate, a Category 2 narcotic commonly consumed by vaping, the Changhua Prosecutors’ Office said in a news release.
This was confirmed after police ordered Hsiao to take urine and blood tests which came back positive for drugs, the prosecutors' office added.
Photo courtesy of the Changhua police
The students from New Taipei’s Kang Chiao International School had been on a round-island tour of Taiwan when a sedan veered into them from the other side of the road in Changhua on Tuesday morning.
The collision happened on Jhangshuei Road in Changhua’s Pitou Township (埤頭).
Hsiao was apprehended yesterday on charges including using narcotics, driving under the influence of drugs, endangering public safety and inflicting grievous bodily harm, police said.
One student, a 15-year-old boy surnamed Yen (顏), sustained serious head injuries and was in a coma.
Following an operation yesterday, he recovered consciousness and has been transferred from Changhua Christian Hospital to National Taiwan University Hospital for further treatment.
As Hsiao was deemed a flight risk and there were concerns of collusion or destruction of evidence, police requested to detain him incommunicado, which was granted by the court, police said.
Initial investigations found that Hsiao was driving dangerously prior to the collision, while drug paraphernalia, including an etomidate vape, were found at the scene, they added.
The driver was taken to the hospital after sustaining injuries in the crash, before discharging himself, arranging for a friend to pick him up and attempting to contact others to destroy evidence, they said.
Police said he evaded their phone calls following the incident.
Hsiao was taken in by police yesterday to provide a statement and evidence, they said.
He has a prior record of drug-related offenses.
If the suspect is found to have been driving under the influence of drugs, he would have contravened the Criminal Code and the Traffic Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例), Department of Public Transportation and Supervision Director-General Lin Fu-shan (林福山) said.
The driver could face a prison term ranging from one to seven years and a fine of NT$1 million and his driver license would be revoked if he has caused severe injuries to others, Lin said.
Additional reporting by Tsai Yun-jung and Fion Khan
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 next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS