SOCIETY
Taipei to help man’s family
The Taipei Public Works Department said it would help the family of a motorcyclist who was struck and killed by a falling tree on Wednesday make a compensation claim under a city insurance policy. The 67-year-old man, surnamed Lin (林), was seriously injured when a roadside tree fell on top of him as he rode along Zhongshan N Road on Wednesday morning. He was found without vital signs and later pronounced dead at Mackay Memorial Hospital. The department said late on Wednesday that it had sent officials to the hospital to console the man’s family and to offer its help in applying for compensation. Under a roadside tree insurance policy taken out by the city, it said, the man’s family is eligible to receive NT$15,000 (US$471) as consolation and, following relevant authorizations, compensation of NT$6 million.
POLITICS
Parris Chang dies at 86
Former National Security Council (NSC) deputy secretary-general Parris Chang (張旭成), who also served as a four-term legislator of the Democratic Progressive Party, has died at the age of 86. His wife, Lin Hsiu-chu (林秀菊), said on Wednesday that Chang passed away on Saturday last week after being hospitalized in April due to complications related to COVID-19. Born in Chiayi County in 1936, Chang left Taiwan in the 1960s to pursue graduate education in the US, later obtaining a doctorate in political science from Columbia University and settling in the country as a dual citizen. After returning to Taiwan in the 1990s, he served in the Legislative Yuan representing overseas citizens from 1993 to 2004 and as NSC deputy secretary-general from 2004 to 2006. Lin said that his legacy would be honored at a ceremony in Taipei on Sept. 23.
TRANSPORTATION
Taipei MRT launches feature
The mobile app for the Taipei MRT has added a new feature that makes it easier for passengers to locate each other when traveling on MRT trains, Taipei Rapid Transit Co said. The “train meet-ups (相約列車)” feature on the Taipei MRT Go app, which is only available in Mandarin, allows passengers to share their train information with friends via social media, the company said in a press release last month. Passengers are required to enter the car number and door number which are located near the door inside each car before sharing a message, which allows the app to locate the train on a real-time MRT map for message recipients.
SOCIETY
Police clarify ‘bat’ case
The Taitung Police Bureau on Thursday defended its handling of a recent incident in which a bat-wielding man confronted a foreign motorcyclist in an apparent road rage incident. In a Reddit post earlier this week, a user going by the name Aggro_Hamham shared a video and described a motorcycle trip from Taitung to Hualien, in which, after he honked at a truck that tried to move into his lane, the driver “brake checked” him and threatened him with a baseball bat. Chang Kuan-hao (張冠?) from Taitung Police Bureau’s Taitung Precinct on Thursday pushed back at online criticism of the department. He said both parties were brought to an area police station, where the driver of the truck apologized for his actions, which the motorcyclist accepted. Chang said police only learned the driver had brandished a baseball bat on Monday — the day after it happened — when the video was posted online. The investigation into the case remains open, Chang said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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