The Taiwan Railway Labor Union chair should not participate in meetings of Taiwan Railway Corp’s (TRC) safety management committee, an external oversight group said yesterday.
The railway operator became a state-run railway company on Jan. 1 after the fatal derailments of express trains in the past six years.
On Oct. 21, 2018, Puyuma Express No. 6432 crashed in Yilan County, killing 18 people and injuring 291.
Photo: Ting Yi, Taipei Times
Forty-nine people died and more than 200 were injured on April 2, 2021, when Taroko Express No. 408 derailed in Hualien County after hitting a crane truck that had slid off an access road to a construction site onto the tracks.
To enhance the safety of the railway system, the Act for Establishment of State-owned Taiwan Railway Co (國營臺灣鐵路股份有限公司設置條例) stipulates that a safety management committee be established to address safety issues and should be directly overseen by the company’s board of directors.
The committee has yet to be established, as the board has not approved the rules of establishment proposed by the railway firm.
The company has proposed that the committee’s convener be a board member assigned by the chair or the board.
The convener could assign one person on the committee to be their deputy, it said.
Among the committee members would be two railway specialists, two university professors, the chairman of the company, with Tu Wei (杜微) currently in the role, and a board member, the company said.
In August last year, families of people who died in the Taroko Express derailment helped to form the TRC Safety Reform Oversight Committee, which has been convening since November last year to make suggestions to help the railway operator improve safety measures.
One of the 13 members of the oversight body is former minister of transportation and communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦).
Minutes of a recent meeting showed that the members of the oversight body said safety issues do not involve the rights and interests of employees, so it would not be appropriate for the chair of the Taiwan Railway Labor Union to be a member of the rail company’s committee.
The rail firm’s committee should rely more on the expertise of external members, they said, adding that the TRC chair should not be a convener.
There should be a clear distinction between the functions of the safety management committee and the TRC’s operational safety department, they said.
The union disagreed with the oversight body’s view.
TRC employees died in major railway incidents, so the union should participate in safety meetings, it said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS