SOCIETY
Driver detained after crash
The Yunlin District Court yesterday approved a motion filed by local prosecutors to detain a tour bus driver involved in a deadly traffic accident, due to the severity of the incident. Yunlin prosecutors applied to detain the driver, surnamed Chen (陳), 63, after the tour bus he drove collided with a car on the southbound lane of the Formosa Freeway (National Freeway No. 3) near Douliou (斗六) in Yunlin County a day earlier. Four people were killed and 22 weer injured in the accident. The prosecutors said two of the dead were a 47-year-old woman surnamed Chu (朱) and her 11-year-old son, surnamed Lai (賴), who were on the tour bus to go to an amusement park in Yunlin. The two other fatalities were the driver of the car, also surnamed Chen (陳), and a passenger surnamed Lo (羅), aged 61, prosecutors said. Prosecutors expressed concern the bus driver could flee justice and collude with witnesses to fabricate testimony, so they filed a motion with the court for his detention. At the hearing, the tour bus driver admitted his negligence had caused the accident. The court subsequently approved the request to detain the 63-year-old.
CRIME
Taichung police seize guns
Two men have been arrested in connection with a large cache of illegal firearms and ammunition seized from a vehicle in a police stakeout operation in Taichung on Saturday. Police said that officers recovered rifles, shotguns, submachine guns and bullets from a vehicle driven by one of those arrested, a man surnamed Tsai (蔡). Police added that Tsai had been waiting for a second man, surnamed Huang (黃), a fugitive previously convicted of weapons and drug offenses, who was also arrested at the scene. Police said they had received tip-offs about the mobile armory, and formed a task force to find and arrest Huang and Tsai. Officers shot the tires on Tsai’s vehicle, after he rammed into two parked cars while attempting to flee, police said. Huang and Tsai are being investigated by the Taichung District Prosecutors’ Office for alleged violations of the Controlling Guns, Ammunition and Knives Act (槍砲彈藥刀械管制條例) and the Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act (毒品危害防制條例).
CRIME
Two indicted for remittances
Two people who allegedly helped Filipino workers in Taiwan make overseas remittances were indicted for violations of a domestic banking law by the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday. The prosecutors’ office said it indicted two suspects, surnamed Chan (詹) and Wu (吳), for making foreign remittances, which only banks are allowed to do in Taiwan according to the Banking Act (銀行法). The prosecutors asked the court to confiscate any illegal gains they made. In the indictment, prosecutors said Chan and Wu set up a company in 2019 and developed a third-party application called “FastPay” targeted at Filipino workers in Taiwan to help them make underground remittances. The app enabled migrant workers to enter the amount of money they wanted to remit, and pay a commission of NT$99 (US$3.06) to NT$149 for each transaction at convenience stores, the prosecutors said. The amount would be transferred to the users’ designated bank accounts in the Philippines. The two suspects handled over NT$4 billion in transactions and made a total of NT$70.59 million in profits from July 1, 2020 to Nov. 4 last year, the indictment 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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