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
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final
FATAL ILLNESS: Untreated symptoms can rapidly worsen to complications such as high fever, seizures and loss of consciousness, and can be life-threatening, a doctor said Hospitals have been reporting dozens of people with heat-related illnesses every day over the past week, given continuous high daytime temperatures, so recognizing the early signs of heatstroke is crucial in preventing serious complications, a Taipei City Hospital emergency physician said. The Central Weather Administration yesterday issued a heat alert for 19 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures in New Taipei City, Miaoli County and Pingtung County likely to exceed 38°C, and temperatures in 12 cities and counties likely to exceed 36°C for three days straight. More than a dozen people were taken to hospitals for heat-related illnesses every day from