Following a factory blaze in Pingtung County on Sept. 22 that killed 10 people and injured more than 100, the Ministry of Justice, hoping to prevent imbalanced criminal liability, announced a draft amendment to Article 276 of the Criminal Code to increase the penalty for negligent homicide.
“Those who commit the crime in the preceding paragraph, depending on the severity of the circumstances and consequences, shall be sentenced to a minimum of one year or a maximum of seven years in prison. If the circumstances are serious and more than three people are killed as a result, they shall be sentenced to prison for a minimum of three years or a maximum of 10,” the proposed amendment says.
The proposal has been backed by many legislators in the hope that the third reading of the amendment bill would be completed as soon as possible.
Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the main suspect in the derailment of the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) Taroko Express in April 2, 2021, which killed 49 people and injured more than 200, was sentenced to only five years in prison, the maximum penalty for negligent homicide, raising public concerns about the punishment not fitting the crime.
The sentence was decided based on provisions in the Criminal Code that the perpetrator of ideal concurrence offenses, where two or more punishments apply to a crime, only the punishment for the most offensive act shall be imposed, despite that one single act violating the legal rights of multiple lives and persons.
The Ministry of Justice took action quickly and sent a letter to the Legislative Yuan for review in May 2021, recommending an amendment to the crimes of negligent homicide and obstruction of transportation in the Criminal Code.
However, the proposal was strongly opposed by some legal academics at a public hearing, who said the requirements for “serious circumstances” were unclear, and that there is no legitimate basis for the “three people” in the aggravated felony provision of causing three or more deaths.
The proposed amendment has yet to be scheduled for review at the Legislative Yuan after two years.
There have recently been frequent cases of heavy casualties caused by single accidents, such as the fatal 2018 derailment of a Puyuma Express train that killed 18 people, the fatal accident in May of a crane boom falling 31 stories onto the tracks of the Taichung MRT, and the incident in July in which a female student from National Chengchi University was killed by an air-conditioner unit that fell from the 17th floor of a building as she was waiting at a bus stop.
For cases of a perpetrator or one act causing multiple casualties, or carelessness and negligence during construction work causing a fatality, the heaviest sentence, according to the current Criminal Code, is only five years of imprisonment.
The Criminal Code has lost its normative integrity here, and there are obvious legal loopholes. It is necessary to amend the law as soon as possible to reduce the risk of accidents.
Both the German and Japanese criminal codes have provisions that increase the penalty for gross negligence, in view of the actor’s violation of a particularly important duty of care, especially the high possibility of damage caused by neglect. The legislation means that the actor of such crimes should be more conscience-stricken, thus the increased legal penalty.
The amendment proposed by the Ministry of Justice follows the legal principles found in the German and Japanese criminal codes, and adds provisions on “gross negligence,” which is laudable.
The Criminal Code is the law most closely related to people’s lives. With the rapid changes and development of criminal methods and the tools available to them, it must be ready for amendment at any time, otherwise the law would not meet actual needs.
Since its comprehensive revision in 2005, the Criminal Code has rarely been significantly revised, causing it to fall behind technological developments and unable to meet real needs.
I hope that this tragic fire would drive legislators to review and amend the outdated relevant provisions in the Criminal Code as soon as possible to reassure the public and make those who lost their lives in this fire not die in vain.
Chao Hsuey-wen is an assistant professor and holds a doctorate in law from Fu Jen Catholic University.
Translated by Lin Lee-kai
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