8 from Chiayi school baseball team injured in traffic accident

Tainan, Aug. 15 (CNA) Seven young baseball players and the coach driving them back from a game have been taken to hospitals in Tainan for treatment after the van they were in hit an engineering vehicle on National Freeway No. 3 Friday, the city's Fire Bureau said.

The traffic incident took place near the 337.5-kilometer mark on the northbound section of the freeway and was reported to the local authorities at around 3 p.m., the Tainan City Fire Bureau said.

First responders rescued eight individuals trapped in the badly damaged van after arriving at the scene, including the driver/coach, who showed signs of losing consciousness and a 15-year-old student from Min Ho Junior High School in Chiayi County who was unconscious.

All eight were taken to four hospitals across Tainan, Chiayi County Department of Education chief Li Mei-hua (李美華) told reporters after visiting Chi Mei Hospital's Liouying branch, where four of the eight were treated.

The parents of the injured young players have been notified about the incident, Li said, promising that the county government will provide assistance to the families of the injured baseball team members.

Li said the department has notified all schools in Chiayi County not to travel for sports events or training in bad weather.

The van is one of two used by the school to take its baseball team back to Chiayi after playing a friendly game in Kaohsiung, Li said.

In a video clip shown by local media outlets, the van is seen smashing into the engineering work vehicle from behind and flipping mid-air before crashing onto the road.

The cause of the accident remains unclear, the National Highway Police Bureau said in a statement released after the freeway was reopened at 4:04 p.m.

Initial tests of the driver found no alcohol in his system, the police said.