The Yilan District Prosecutors’ Office on Monday charged six people with negligence over the October 2019 collapse of the Nanfangao Bridge (南方澳橋) that killed six people and injured 12.
Four of the defendants are from companies contracted to oversee the bridge’s construction and supervision, while two are former officials in charge of construction at the Suao Port Branch of Taiwan International Ports Corp.
They have been charged with involuntary manslaughter and negligent injury, the prosecutors’ office said.
Photo: Chiang Chih-hsiung, Taipei Times
It said the collapse was the result of collective negligence by the defendants.
The contractor did not build the 140m suspension bridge according to the approved blueprint, the supervisory company failed to perform its job properly and the port management authority failed to conduct controls, maintenance and repairs as required, it said.
The contractor covered cables with loose-fitting high-density polyethylene tubes that did not attach to bridge anchor heads in an airtight manner, it said, adding that the anchor heads were not shielded against water.
As the waterproofing material on the anchor heads wore off, saltwater corroded the cables and joints inside, it said.
The office also charged the owner and a shareholder of the supervisory company with forging documents and fraud, after they were found to have hired unlicensed personnel to inspect bridges in Yilan County.
The company in 2018 illicitly gained NT$8.23 million (US$270,412 at the current exchange rate) in public funds by providing false information about inspectors to the Yilan County Government, prosecutors said.
The finding was made during the probe into the collapse and is not related to the incident, they said.
The corrosion issue was mentioned in a report by the independent Taiwan Transportation Safety Board in 2020.
Bureau official Yeh Ming-shan (葉名山) at the time said the bridge was prone to rust damage, due to saltwater and high humidity in the area.
Rain water also seeped into the anchoring mechanism and corroded the steel strands, he said.
The bridge underwent seven inspections since its completion in 1998, but they were all superficial visual inspections that failed to take into account that the bridge had specific design features that required closer examination, Yeh said.
No inspection had been carried out in the four years prior to the collapse, he added.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS