The Taichung MRT’s automated trains would now have their emergency driver panels left open at all times, so that they can be accessed immediately by train attendants in the event of an emergency, the company said yesterday.
The new policy was announced days after a crane boom fell from a building onto the MRT line near Feng-le Park Station, only to be struck 41 seconds later by an oncoming train, killing one person and injuring 10.
In a hearing yesterday at the Taichung City Council, Taichung Mass Rapid Transit Corp president Chuang Ming-tsung (莊明聰) said that the company had not considered the possibility of a foreign object “falling from the sky” in its risk assessments.
Photo: CNA
“In principle, the track area is supposed to be absolutely clear,” Chuang said, adding that nothing like last Thursday’s accident had ever happened on the Taipei MRT’s driverless Wenhu Line in its 27 years of operation.
Chuang said the Taichung MRT’s standard policy had been to only leave the driver panels on its trains open when winds reached seven on the Beaufort scale (50kph to 61kph), so that attendants could stop the train more easily if something, such as a signboard, blew onto the tracks.
However, as of yesterday the company has begun keeping the emergency driver panels open at all times, he said.
The company has faced criticism that the accident could have been averted with better emergency planning.
Specifically, critics have drawn attention to released surveillance footage that showed a station security guard noticing the fallen crane boom, but being unable to stop the train as its doors close and it begins to accelerate.
In another portion of the video, an attendant at the front of the train can be seen rifling through her bag, apparently searching for the key to the driver panel, for several seconds before the collision.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its