ROAD SAFETY/2 killed in separate crashes on high-risk Miaoli highway section

Taipei, Dec. 14 (CNA) A Vietnamese man and a Singaporean woman were killed in separate car crashes around 4 kilometers apart on an accident-prone section of Provincial Highway No. 3 in Miaoli County Saturday.

Local police received a report around 10 a.m. on Saturday about a motorcycle rider who slipped at a turn and collided with an oncoming vehicle at the 118.3 km mark on the highway in Miaoli's Shihtan Township.

The motorcycle rider was badly injured and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, the Miaoli County Police Bureau's Dahu Precinct told reporters.

Initial tests on the rider, a 19-year-old Vietnamese student studying at Yu Da University of Science and Technology in Miaoli, and the driver of the other vehicle showed no traces of alcohol, the police said.

The university said its staff went to the hospital after learning about the accident and will help contact the student's family in Vietnam.

Meanwhile, around 2 p.m. Saturday, the county's Fire Bureau received a report about a car crash at the 114 km mark on the highway, where first responders found a vehicle jammed between a power pole and the roadside retaining wall.

The driver, a 36-year-old Singaporean man, and his 5-year-old daughter managed to get out of the crashed vehicle that brought down two power poles, but the driver's wife, 33, was stuck in the back seat, according to local police.

The woman showed no signs of life when first responders got her out of the vehicle and she was later pronounced dead at the hospital, police said.

The family of three was visiting Taiwan with a rented car, police said.

The Dahu Precinct warned drivers to pay full attention to several turns and slopes when traveling on this section of the north-south highway through the mountainous township of Shihtan, where numerous accidents have happened in recent years.