ROAD SAFETY/Unlicensed driver crashes truck, killing cyclist in Hualien

Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) A 21-year-old unlicensed light truck driver struck and killed a man on a bicycle after apparently falling asleep at the wheel on Provincial Highway 9 in Hualien's Fuli Township early Monday, according to local authorities.

Hualien police said the driver, a resident of Haiduan Township in Taitung County surnamed Ku (古), and a passenger had driven the truck to downtown Hualien in the early hours of Monday to make deliveries.

Traveling back to Taitung on Provincial Highway 9, Ku is believed to have fallen asleep at the wheel at around 6 a.m., near the road's 286.9-kilometer marker in Fuli Township in southern Hualien, the police bureau said.

After Ku nodded off, the truck crossed the road divider and crashed into a storefront on the road's opposite side, then went on to strike a man on a bicycle and slam into a traffic light, police said.

Paramedics arriving at the scene found the cyclist, a 51-year-old man surnamed Huang (黃), with serious injuries to his head and limbs. They rushed him to Yuli Tzu Chi Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at around 8 a.m.

Ku, meanwhile, suffered scrapes on his arm, while his passenger, surnamed Wang (王), escaped unharmed. Police said Ku had passed a breathalyzer test but did not have a driver's license.

The exact cause of the accident is still under investigation.