Autopsies confirm Taichung rockfall killed 4 hikers

Taichung, June 28 (CNA) Autopsies on four hikers killed in a rockfall on a Taichung hiking trail confirmed Sunday that they died of traumatic shock caused by falling rocks, prosecutors said.

The Taichung District Prosecutors Office said prosecutors and forensic examiners conducted the autopsies earlier in the day after the victims' bodies were taken to a funeral home in Taichung.

The four deaths were ruled accidental, and prosecutors issued death certificates after the victims' families raised no objections to the findings, the office said.

Prosecutors said they were continuing to investigate whether the accident involved criminal negligence.

The victims were among a 16-member hiking group organized by the Republic of China Primitive Life Education Association that traveled from Taipei on Saturday to hike the Butterfly Valley Waterfall Trail in Taichung's Heping District, according to police.

Rocks struck five members of the group on the trail, killing four and leaving one with minor bruises, police said.

The dead were identified as the group's guide, a 61-year-old man surnamed Yeh (葉); a 63-year-old man surnamed Cheng (鄭); a 69-year-old woman surnamed Yao (姚); and a 57-year-old woman surnamed Chi (紀), police said.

Association Chairman Wu Swei-pi (吳水丕), who organized the trip, said Sunday that the weather was clear when the group set out and forecasts had shown no rain was expected in the area Saturday afternoon.

Wu said the association had organized monthly hikes for 30 years and had visited the trail many times.

He said Yeh had turned back to help slower hikers cross a stream when the rockfall struck him and four others.

"I feel deep regret over the accident," Wu said, adding that the group had believed the trail was safe after government repair work was completed in April.

Wu said warnings or a temporary trail closure could have alerted hikers to the danger.

The Taichung Branch of the Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency said in a statement released on Sunday that the trail remained open because rainfall associated with Tropical Storm Mekkhala had not met the threshold for closure.

The agency said the rockfall occurred near the 1.2-kilometer mark of the trail, an area with no previous history of slope failure.

It said the collapse was likely triggered by excessive rainfall, and that it would dispatch trail experts to conduct an on-site inspection in the near future.

Authorities were considering closing the affected section and installing slope monitoring equipment, the agency said.

Former Transportation Minister Tsai Duei (蔡堆), who was among the hikers, escaped unharmed.