A 21-year-old alleged drunk driver who struck a pedestrian in Tainan’s Anping District (安平) early on Wednesday causing fatal injuries has been released on bail, local police said yesterday.
The pedestrian, a 58-year-old woman surnamed Sun (孫), died in a hospital on Wednesday night after being found with no vital signs at the scene of the collision, police said in a statement.
The incident occurred when the driver, identified by her family name, Wei (魏), made a left turn from Jiankang 3rd Street onto Anping Road at about 7am, police said.
Photo: CNA
Surveillance footage showed that after making the turn, Wei’s white Audi struck Sun, who was walking on the road’s edge, but well out of the traffic lane. Sun appeared to have been walking on the road to get past a parked car as the footpath was narrow.
Wei’s Audi veered left after hitting Sun and slammed into a parked taxi and a bakery on the opposite side of the road, police said.
The driver was arrested and found to have had a breath alcohol concentration of 0.57mg/l — nearly four times the legal limit of 0.15mg/l, police said.
Police said that they would increase breath-alcohol tests in Anping for five days beginning yesterday.
Following questioning, Wei was released at 11pm on Wednesday on bail of NT$100,000, the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office said.
An investigation is ongoing, it said.
In New Taipei City yesterday, police said that a man in his 70s was in a critical condition after being struck by a vehicle while crossing the road early in the morning.
The man was being treated at Mackay Memorial Hospital in Tamsui District (淡水), while the driver had been taken into custody on suspicion of offenses against public safety, police said.
The two incidents are likely to put further pressure on the government to improve road safety following several high-profile crashes and articles describing the country as a “living hell” for pedestrians.
It has taken some steps, such as increasing fines for failing to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks.
Last week, a rally, dubbed “Stop Killing Pedestrians,” was organized by the Zero Pedestrian Death Promotion Alliance in response to the 3,085 people who died in traffic incidents last year.
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
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
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
RSS