A driver in outlying Lienchiang County has been fined for failing to yield to his own son and daughter on a crosswalk, a coincidence that only came to light after he received a ticket with a photograph of the violation that doubled as a “family portrait.”
The man’s son, surnamed Lee (李), recently shared a photo of the ticket on social media, which indicated that the incident occurred on the morning of Dec. 28 last year.
“My dad got a NT$6,000 fine for failing to yield to pedestrians. The pedestrians were me and my sister,” he wrote in the post.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
As of Wednesday afternoon, the post had received more than 10,000 reactions on Threads, including several comments joking that the father had paid NT$6,000 for a “family portrait.”
The driver’s younger brother, also surnamed Lee, confirmed the basic details of the story to CNA on Wednesday.
He said his brother had just dropped his children off in front of the Nangan Fuao Port (南竿福澳港) Terminal Building, and circled around the block only to encounter them again on a crosswalk, where he failed to yield.
Chen Teng-yao (陳登堯), head of a Special Police Corps unit at Lienchiang County Police Bureau, said the bureau had begun using a traffic enforcement camera in front of the port terminal building on Dec. 1 last year.
As of Wednesday, the bureau had issued 71 tickets for illegal parking and failure to yield to pedestrians for violations captured on the camera, Chen said.
Taiwan has made efforts to improve pedestrian safety in recent years, following a number of high-profile incidents and a CNN article that referred to the country as a “living hell” for pedestrians.
In June 2023, the government raised the maximum fine for failing to yield to pedestrians on a crosswalk or other designated area from NT$3,600 to NT$6,000, while leaving the minimum fine at NT$1,200.
The government has also set a goal of reducing pedestrian deaths by 50 percent by 2030.
However, the 183 pedestrian deaths recorded from January to June last year represented a 5.8 percent increase from the same period in 2023, Ministry of Transportation and Communications data showed.
Twenty-one percent of pedestrian deaths in Taiwan occur when drivers hit them as they walk across crosswalks when there is a pedestrian green light, the ministry said.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman
RSS