Majority of pedestrians injured in Sanxia are students: Department

Taipei, May 19 (CNA) Most of those among the three people who died and 13 injured in a traffic accident in New Taipei on Monday afternoon were students, according to the New Taipei Education Department.

The incident happened at around 4 p.m. when a car suddenly rammed into pedestrians at an intersection between Guocheng Road and Guoguang Street near Bei Da Elementary School, the department said in a news release.

According to local police and fire officials as of 6:30 p.m., three people have died, two of whom were female students in their teens from a nearby junior high school and the other was a woman in her 40s.

Most of the injured were also students from the junior high school while one was a preschooler, it said.

Liu Wen-chang (劉文章), head of Bei Da Elementary School, said many of the injured were Sanxia Junior High School students, as his elementary school students were still in class when the incident happened.

They sustained a range of injuries and were sent to three different hospitals for treatment -- En Chu Kong Hospital in Sanxia, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (Tucheng branch) and Far Eastern Memorial Hospital in Banqiao District.

Sanxia police precinct chief Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said the driver was a 78-year-old man, identified by his last name Yu (余).

Yu had a valid driver's license and tested negative for alcohol in his system, Liu said, but police could not gather any further information from him because he was in a coma from injuries sustained in the incident.

In a statement issued Monday night, the New Taipei Police Department said Yu was driving on Guocheng Street toward Fuxing Road when he ran a red light at the intersection with Guoguang Street.

At that time, the traffic signals at the intersection of Guocheng Street and Guoguang Street were set to "pedestrian protection mode," with all four directions showing red lights.

Police said Yu sideswiped three standard motorcycles and one bicycle at the intersection before continuing straight along Lane 132 of Fuxing Road, where he finally came to a stop after crashing into a traffic island.

Law enforcement authorities are investigating the cause of the crash and did not have any preliminary theories on what happened.