The number of pedestrian deaths from January to September increased by 4 percent to 263 from the same period last year, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
In the period, 2,084 people died in traffic accidents, down 83 people, or by 3.8 percent, the ministry said.
It said it is working to raise awareness of road-crossing safety for older adults, as elderly people accounted for more than half of pedestrian deaths at road sections.
Photo: Tsai Yun-jung, Taipei Times
Kaohsiung recorded the highest number of deaths within 30 days of an incident at 228, up 78 from the same period last year.
A total of 1,284 people died in incidents involving scooters, and 883 of the deaths were elderly people.
Compared with the same period last year, pedestrian deaths increased by 10 people, or 4 percent, while deaths from other causes were down 3.1 percent to 11.3 percent, the ministry said.
Pingtung, Yunlin and Chiayi were the top three counties by total pedestrian deaths per 100,000 population, averaging 15.47 to 18 deaths, it said.
Commenting on the increase of pedestrian deaths this year, Department of Railways, Highways and Road Safety Division Director-General Wu Tung-ling (吳東凌) said overall, the number of deaths was on the decline, and the numbers this year were a short-term fluctuation.
The ministry continues to work toward its goal of reducing traffic accident deaths by 7 percent annually, Wu said.
Elderly people had the highest mortality rate for road section accidents, accounting for 55.6 percent, with the top three causes being failure to follow signage, inappropriate driving behavior, and being distracted or nervous, he said.
Separately, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) said the Highway Bureau is implementing a project to improve road lighting by adopting warmer yellow lights and brighter white lights at crossings and intersections.
The policy aims to help remind drivers to be more alert when approaching crossings, Chen said, adding that the ministry has completed renovations at 275 crossings as of the end of last month.
The ministry hopes to complete another 15 by the end of the year, with a target of 200 renovations by the end of next year, Chen added.
Average nighttime accident rates at the 177 crossings where renovations had been made have dropped from 1167 in 2023 to 8.87 per month from January to August, he added.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake yesterday struck off the coast of Hualien, causing brief transportation disruptions in northern and eastern Taiwan, as authorities said that aftershocks of magnitude 5 or higher could occur over the next three days. The quake, which hit at 7:24pm at a depth of 24.5km, registered an intensity of 4 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. In Taipei, the MRT railway’s operations control center received an earthquake alert and initiated standard safety procedures, briefly halting trains on the Bannan (blue) line for about a minute.
RSS