Taichung mayor announces 5 measures after bus kills pedestrian

Taichung, Sept. 24 (CNA) Taichung City Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) announced five measures on Tuesday after a bus struck two university students on a city crosswalk on Sunday, killing one and injuring the other.

Speaking at a city council meeting on Tuesday morning, Lu said that she felt "deeply saddened" by the accident, which she attributed to the professional bus driver's "negligence."

Also read: Bus operator involved in fatal Taichung accident fined NT$1.2 million

Lu said, without going into any detail, that the Taichung City government would impose a "heavy penalty" of NT$1.2 million on the bus company implicated in the incident and request all bus operators in the city implement "safety education training" within 10 days.

She also said that the municipal government would review the intersection where the fatal incident occurred as well as 20 other traffic accident hotspots across the city.

The mayor of the central Taiwanese city further vowed to increase penalties levied on bus companies involved in serious accidents and install "driver safety assistance systems" on all city buses by the end of the year.

"When we get out of our cars, we are all pedestrians," the mayor implored drivers. "When we get in a car, we should treat pedestrians as we would our own family."

The two female Tunghai University students were walking across a pedestrian crossing in Taichung's Central District around 9:15 p.m. on Sunday when they were hit by a No. 305 city bus.

The vehicle, which was operated by the Geya Bus Transportation Company, made a left turn from Luchuan East Street onto Zhongshan Road, killing one student identified by her surname Lin (林) and injuring another surnamed Wang (王).

The driver of the bus that struck the students, identified by his surname Shih (施), was released on bail of NT$10,000 after being interrogated by prosecutors on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter on Monday.

Shih, who had driven the route for 15 years and was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the collision on Sunday, told police that he had not seen the young women crossing the road because it was "late" and "dark," and because they were wearing dark clothing.

The students had been crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing in accordance with traffic regulations during a green light that indicated their right of way.

In Taiwan, however, drivers are allowed to drive through pedestrian crossings at intersections when making turns even when a green crosswalk light indicates that it should be safe for pedestrians to cross the road.

Mayor Lu's Facebook page had been inundated with angry comments following news of the fatal collision.

"The most chaotic traffic in the whole of Taiwan is in Taichung City," said one commenter, while another said the city was a "pedestrian hell."

In June, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) released data indicating that in the first three months of this year, 119 pedestrians were killed due to road accidents.

According to the MOTC, the main causes of these deaths were drivers failing to give way to pedestrians crossing roads on intersection crosswalks or pedestrians crossing roads outside marked crossings.