Two buses collided in the 12.9km Hsuehshan Tunnel in northeastern Taiwan yesterday, causing two deaths and injuring more than 20 people, two of them seriously.
The collision, which occurred at 1:27pm, caused a passenger bus to catch fire after it was rear-ended by another bus at the 26km marker on the southbound side of Freeway No. 5 in the Hsuehshan Tunnel, which links New Taipei City (新北市) and Yilan County, police said.
The Directorate-General of Highways confirmed that the collision occurred after a tire blew out on a car in front of the first bus, forcing the bus driver, employed by Kamalan Bus (葛瑪蘭客運), to stomp on the brakes, catching the driver of the following bus by surprise.
Photo courtesy of the New Taipei City Fire Department
The second bus, owned by Capital Bus (首都客運), burst into flames after the collision, and the driver was killed in the fire, the agency said.
Firefighters extinguished the flames at 2:08pm, saying the injured, who mostly suffered from smoke inhalation, had been rushed to nearby hospitals.
The tunnel has been closed to traffic to facilitate rescue work, police said.
Photo: CNA
It was the most serious accident to occur in the tunnel since its opening in June 2006.
Considered a marvel of civil engineering and human perseverance, the tunnel took 15 years to complete.
National Freeway Bureau -Director-General Tseng Dar-jen (曾大仁) said one fire drill is held in the tunnel every season, with the most recent taking place on March 31 and April 1.
The drills focus on smoke and fume ventilation, and extinguishing flames, Tseng said.
Eight vehicle fires have -occurred in the tunnel. In all fires, the fire fighting team outsourced by the bureau — Shang Hung Gardening (尚宏園藝有限公司) — was able to put out the flames, Tseng said.
However, the fire from yesterday’s accident was too much for the gardening company to handle, and the bureau had to ask for help from fire stations in Yilan County and New Taipei City, Tseng said.
The Financial Supervisory Commission has directed insurance companies to help the victims and the family members of the deceased.
Miaoli-based Shang Hung -Gardening, which began -operations with less than NT$5 million (US$170,500) in paid-in capital, won a contract in 2010 to provide first-line firefighting services in the tunnel for three years.
Although the nearest the company had previously come to working on the national freeway system was the placement and maintenance of shrubs, hedges and flowers, its manager said at the time that his company was experienced enough to ensure the safety of the more than 40,000 vehicles that pass through the tunnel per day, adding that its firefighters were “very highly trained.”
Translation by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS