A New Taipei City high-school student rescued a 76-year-old woman who fell onto the train tracks at Banciao Station on Saturday.
The 18-year-old Municipal Yong-Ping High School student, surnamed Lee (李), on Monday spoke to reporters about the incident.
The school’s principal and a guidance counselor attended the news conference with Lee.
Photo: Tung Kuan-yi, Taipei Times
Lee said that he and a friend were eating breakfast as they were waiting for a train at about 8am on Saturday when they heard people shouting from the end of the platform that someone had fallen onto the tracks.
The lights signaling that a train was approaching were flashing, he said.
“If the lights weren’t flashing, I would have called a station worker, but the train was coming, so I was worried that there would be no time for that,” he said.
Lee said that he saw a row of pillars between the northbound and southbound tracks and jumped down to help the woman.
He lifted the woman and carried her between the two sets of tracks while shouting for his friend to get help, he said.
Lee said he tried to speak to the woman to calm her down, but she was too panicked to reply.
A station worker arrived, but as the train was already nearing the station, he told them to wait where they were until it came to a stop, he said.
Once the train stopped, the station worker helped them back onto the platform, where the woman was treated for minor leg injuries, he said.
Lee said he called his parents to let them know what had happened and that he was fine.
His mother and father were alarmed, but ultimately trusted his judgement, while his grandmother praised him for his bravery, he said.
Shen Mei-hua (沈美華), the school’s principal, also expressed concern for Lee’s safety, but said she understood after speaking to him that he had clearly thought through what he was doing.
The school is planning to issue Lee an award for his actions, Shen said.
Taiwan Railway Corp said that in situations where a person has fallen onto the tracks, a station worker should be notified immediately and people should not put themselves in danger by leaping after them.
It is also evaluating a plan to install automatic doors on station platforms — similar to those on Taiwan’s MRT systems — although that would be a complicated endeavor, as they would need to cater for the different train types that use its stations, Taiwan Railway said.
A trial program for platform doors would be run at Kaohsiung Main Station in the second half of this year, it said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS