A Keelung resident surnamed Wu (吳) was shocked when he received a speeding ticket and a fine of NT$24,000 from the New Taipei City (新北市) police department for driving at 1,623kph — 1,563kph over the speed limit.
Wu, who received the ticket in the mail on Wednesday, was incredulous when he saw the fine, saying the government was robbing him. A Department of Motor Vehicles staffer said he had never seen anything like the speeding ticket.
Tseng Huan-chang (曾煥彰), the patrol officer in the Ruifang Precinct Traffic Duty Section of the New Taipei City Police Department who issued the ticket, apologized to Wu after he was informed of the issue.
Tseng said a camera caught Wu speeding along the Maoao section of Provincial Highway No. 2. The section of the highway has a speed limit of 60kph, Tseng said, but Wu was driving at 75kph when the speed camera took the photo.
The company that police outsource data input to made a mistake, keying in 1,563kph instead of 15kph over the speed limit, inflating the original NT$1,600 fine to NT$24,000, Tseng said.
The mistake was not spotted, Tseng said, adding that a correct ticket would be mailed to Wu.
Wu said his wife had almost divorced him because of the police department’s mistake, adding that friends who saw the ticket joked that he must have been flying an airplane on the highway.
TRANSLATED BY JAKE CHUNG, STAFF WRITER
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS