Outside experts should monitor reforms at the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), the Taiwan Railway Labor Union said in Taipei yesterday, as today marks the one-month anniversary of a deadly Taroko Express train crash.
On April 2, Taroko Express No. 408, traveling from New Taipei City to Taitung, derailed as it entered the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林) after it hit a crane truck that had slid down a slope from a work site onto the rails. Forty-nine people died and more than 200 were injured, making it the nation’s most devastating railway accident in decades.
About a dozen union
Sporadic rainfall was yesterday reported throughout Taiwan, as a wet weather system from southern China approached.
As of 8am, the most rainfall was reported in Hualien County, followed by Yilan County, Central Weather Bureau data showed.
Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林) recorded the most rain at 49mm, the data showed.
Former bureau Weather Forecast Center director Daniel Wu (吳德榮) said it would be mostly cloudy throughout Taiwan today and tomorrow, with brief showers in parts of eastern Taiwan and afternoon thundershowers in the mountains.
Wu, a meteorologist and adjunct associate professor of atmospheric sciences at National Central University, said that the weather could become
Taroko Express nearly hits worker on tracks
By Chiang Chih-hsiung, Cheng Wei-chi and Jake Chung / Staff reporters, with staff writer
The Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) yesterday reported an incident involving yet another Taroko Express train, this time near Wuta Station (武塔) in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳).
Taroko Express No. 405, which was traveling east to New Taipei City’s Shulin District (樹林) from Taitung County, nearly hit a worker surnamed Wang (王) when passing through the station at 8:32am, the TRA said.
The worker was walking on the railway tracks from the second platform to the first platform, the railway agency said.
Despite the train driver slamming on the emergency brakes, Wang fell to the ground, but fortunately only sustained minor injuries, it said.
Four additional suspects questioned over train crash
TEN IMPLICATED: An Agency Against Corruption probe focuses on Hualien government officials and contractors accused of bribery, the agency said
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Hualien prosecutors yesterday questioned four more suspects amid an investigation into a fatal train crash on Friday last week, saying that they are focusing on alleged corruption over public work projects.
Fifty people were killed and more than 200 injured when Taroko Express No. 408 crashed into a crane truck that had rolled onto the tracks, derailed and slammed into the walls of the Cingshuei Tunnel (清水隧道) in Hualien’s Sioulin Township (秀林).