The last time Su Chien-yi’s (蘇建益) pregnant wife saw her newlywed husband was on the morning of Aug. 9 last year. Despite a typhoon warning, heavy rains and washed out roads, he had been called in to the office for overtime work.
He never made it home. Su was one of 10 victims on Shuangyuan Bridge (雙園大橋) when it collapsed into the Gaoping River (高屏溪) that afternoon after raging waters washed away its support columns.
There was no warning about the bridge’s imminent collapse, nor was any attempt made to seal off the bridge that connected Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, despite the record rainfall upstream brought by Typhoon Morakot.
One year later, Su Lee Yu-mei (蘇李玉美) is demanding answers from the government on whether her son’s family is entitled to national compensation. Despite months of consultations, the government has yet to make a decision.
Under the State Compensation Act (國家賠償法), the government is liable for any damage caused by a defect in public facilities, including roads and bridges, or public officials’ negligence.
Chou Chun-mi (周春米), a lawyer representing the victims’ families, said both these factors were evident when the 2.9km bridge collapsed.
“It’s a fact that the bridge washed away and because the victims were found to have died as a result, the government should be liable for compensation,” she said.
However, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has given conflicting signals on the issue over the past six months. First, it rejected the claim in February, saying the act did not apply in the case of a natural disaster. In May, it asked the families to reopen the case.
A senior Directorate-General of Highways official said there was a policy change after the government decided to compensate the families of four people killed when a landslide buried a section of National Freeway No. 3 in Taipei County in April.
“What we realized was that the motorists are innocent when incidents like this occur,” said Mile Chen (陳茂南), chief secretary at the directorate. “We decided to take another look at their claims as a result.”
Nevertheless, claimants like Su Lee say they are getting tired of waiting while the government decides what should have been apparent from the start: That people drowned because the government was unprepared.
“If President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo’s (毛治國) children had died that day, would the government still be adopting this attitude?” she asked at a press conference held by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) yesterday.
Pan said it was incomprehensible that it took the ministry less than a month to decide to compensate the landslide victims’ families, but the Shuangyuan families have been waiting for almost a year.
Representatives of the 22 other people who lost family members in the incident said they were angry with the lack of communication on the progress of the case since May.
“Don’t they feel disgraced or ashamed that we have to hold two press conferences [to ask for information]?” said Lin Liang-lin (林良璘), who lost his brother. “It’s been three months [without] a word.”
The directorate promised to give a decision by Aug. 20, but in the meantime, it said it would hold talks with Chou.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS