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.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
RSS