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.
Global bodies should stop excluding Taiwan for political reasons, President William Lai (賴清德) told Pope Francis in a letter, adding that he agrees war has no winners. The Vatican is one of only 12 countries to retain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, and Taipei has watched with concern efforts by Beijing and the Holy See to improve ties. In October, the Vatican and China extended an accord on the appointment of Catholic bishops in China for four years, pointing to a new level of trust between the two parties. Lai, writing to the pope in response to the pontiff’s message on Jan. 1’s
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
HOLIDAY EXERCISE: National forest recreation areas from north to south offer travelers a wide choice of sights to connect with nature and enjoy its benefits Hiking is a good way to improve one’s health, the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said, as it released a list of national forest recreation areas that travelers can visit during the Lunar New Year holiday. Taking a green shower of phytoncides in the woods could boost one’s immunity system and metabolism, agency Director-General Lin Hwa-ching (林華慶) cited a Japanese study as saying. For people visiting northern Taiwan, Lin recommended the Dongyanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興). Once an important plantation in the north, Dongyanshan (東眼山) has a number of historic monuments, he said. The area is broadly covered by
TAKE BREAKS: A woman developed cystitis by refusing to get up to use the bathroom while playing mahjong for fear of disturbing her winning streak, a doctor said People should stand up and move around often while traveling or playing mahjong during the Lunar New Year holiday, as prolonged sitting can lead to cystitis or hemorrhoids, doctors said. Yuan’s General Hospital urologist Lee Tsung-hsi (李宗熹) said that he treated a 63-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙) who had been sitting motionless and holding off going to the bathroom, increasing her risk of bladder infection. Chao would drink beverages and not urinate for several hours while playing mahjong with friends and family, especially when she was on a winning streak, afraid that using the bathroom would ruin her luck, he said. She had
RSS