The Pingtung District Court has ruled that diving instructors and their company must compensate a Japanese family NT$20.73 million (US$626,061) after a family member died in a diving accident.
Japanese tourist Ryoji Kujirai was diving with his family at Houpihu (後壁湖) in Pingtung County's Kenting (墾丁) in 2019 when bad weather and ear pressure issues caused him to drown.
The instructors, a husband and wife surnamed Lin (林) and Wang (王) respectively, are both qualified diving instructors and ran a diving shop in Hengchun Township (恆春), the court said.
Photo: Taipei Times
In August 2019, they led Kujirai and his wife and daughter for three days of open-water diving activities, it said.
The weather was poor on Aug. 15, 2019, with Level 9 wind gusts, waves of 2m to 3m high, and water visibility of only 2m to 3m, it added.
The instructors were conducting ear pressure equalization training with Kujirai that day and observed him diving and surfacing 18 to 20 times, showing signs of difficulty with ear pressure, the court said.
His eardrum ruptured due to underwater pressure, and he was not rescued in time to save him from drowning, it added.
Kujirai’s parents, wife and daughter sought more than NT$80 million in compensation for his death, subsequent funeral expenses, and emotional and punitive damages.
The court ruled to compensate the family NT$20.73 million, setting a record for the highest compensation in a diving-related fatality in Taiwan’s history.
The case is subject to appeal.
The compensation amount is reasonable given the number of plaintiffs, the victim's dependents and the atypical nature of the case compared with standard traffic accidents, attorney Pan Jen-cheng (潘人誠) said.
Lin and Wang were sentenced to eight and six months in prison respectively for negligent homicide.
Lin is currently serving his sentence, while Wang has lost her eyesight.
The diving company has ceased operations.
Additional reporting by Tsai Tsung-hsien
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
Taiwan plans to cull as many as 120,000 invasive green iguanas this year to curb the species’ impact on local farmers, the Ministry of Agriculture said. Chiu Kuo-hao (邱國皓), a section chief in the ministry’s Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency, on Sunday said that green iguanas have been recorded across southern Taiwan and as far north as Taichung. Although there is no reliable data on the species’ total population in the country, it has been estimated to be about 200,000, he said. Chiu said about 70,000 iguanas were culled last year, including about 45,000 in Pingtung County, 12,000 in Tainan, 9,900 in
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
RSS