Two men died after a sedan they were traveling in was hit by rocks on a county road in Miaoli County yesterday, the local fire bureau said.
The 5th Fire Control and Rescue Group of the Miaoli County Fire Bureau said it received a report at 3:19 pm yesterday about a red sedan being crushed by a rockfall on a section of County Highway 62-1 in Taian Township (泰安) near Ching An Elementary School.
First responders arrived at the scene and spotted two men trapped and unresponsive in the badly damaged vehicle, half of which was under a huge boulder, the fire bureau said.
Photo courtesy of a member of the public via CNA
A man in the driver’s seat was pulled out of the car first, but the 59-year-old man identified by his surnamed Tu (涂) was without vital signs and later pronounced dead at Da Shuen Hospital, the fire bureau said.
The man in the passenger seat next to the driver suffered serious head injuries and was apparently dead at the scene, it said.
Meanwhile, Miaoli County Police Bureau said the identity of the second man has yet to be confirmed.
According to Taian Township chief Chen Chi-chi (陳吉 基), the deadly incident occurred following the return of sunny weather over the last two days, after the mountainous area was inundated with heavy rain for most of the past month.
The Miaoli County Transportation and Public Works Department has urged road users to exercise extra caution, as several days of rain have increased the risk of rockfalls -- especially along County Highway 62, which leads to the popular Tai’an Hot Springs tourist attraction.
Rockfalls are quite rare along County Highway 62-1, the department said, but road users should pay close attention when traveling to and from the mountainous area.
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