The legislature yesterday gave preliminary approval to a legal amendment that will require backseat passengers in small cars to wear seatbelts, with the driver liable to be fined if they don’t.
The amendment to Article 31 of the Act Governing the Punishment of Violation of Road Traffic Regulations (道路交通管理處罰條例) mandates that drivers could be punished if passengers sitting in the backseat do not buckle up. However, for taxi services, passengers will be penalized if they refuse to follow the taxi drivers’ verbal and written instructions to fasten their seatbelts.
First proposed by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Chen Chao-long (陳朝龍), the amendment passed a third reading at the legislature in 2006.
However, legislators delayed execution of the policy amid controversy over whether children under the age of four should be required to wear seatbelts and whether drivers or passengers should be fined if the latter refused to buckle up.
The issue again came to national attention after the death of Sun Yat-sen’s (孫逸仙) granddaughter Nora Sun (孫鏸芬) following a car accident earlier this year. Reports said she was in the backseat and had not fastened her seatbelt.
Despite a consensus between the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on the necessity of the measure, lawmakers said the Ministry of Transportation and Communications had to be cautious in executing the policy.
“The aim should be to enhance the safety of passengers, not punish them,” DPP Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said, adding that the ministry should increase its public awareness campaign on the new policy.
KMT Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said the amendment should clearly state drivers’ obligation to require passengers to wear seatbelts.
The ministry said it would initiate a campaign of between one and three months to inform the public of the change in policy before officially implementing it.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS