I read in Taipei Times that the fire started when an employee tried to diffuse a gas leak by using an electric fan.
Try the spoiler
Eh I could make a bet that like the horrific bus accidents and incidents, the blame will be placed on the dead driver’s shoulders. Corner/cost cutting measures and or work conditions won’t be scrutinized.
Co Driver jumped off the truck 500 meters before the collision.
Oh and there was a female passenger on the truck. She survived.
One more detail: the truck was coming from Tamsui. It was headed to deliver to a mansion being built in YMS. It has taken that route due to morning traffic restrictions.
Taiwan “news”.
Pathetic. So sick of this traffic mess. 
Why am I not surprised? Seems there’s a Darwin Award “winner” every day here.
It would still be here.
This shows a different angle, but it doesn’t show people dying or anything:
http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/local/20170719/1164572/
You can see a woman walk away seemingly fine after her car is hit.
So that means the truck was out of control for over 500 metres - that’s a long way to travel without hitting anything previously - was he sounding his horn?
The co-driver thing sounds strange - he was asleep - woke up coz he sensed something was wrong - then jumped out of a moving (?) truck - the passenger seat, I assume, or was he riding on the back somewhere?
Was there any report about what the truck driver said to the co-driver or he didn’t say anything? If there was a mechanical problem you think he would be screaming ‘there’s no brakes!’ or similar
Was he injured? Jumping from an out-of-control truck has gotta be a high risk manoeuvre
Was the female passenger a worker?
I’m not sure what’s going on with the co-driver–that looks kind of confusing–but this is what one source indirectly quotes the woman (was she a passenger?) as saying:
不過與他們同車的女同事陳心怡則表示，在事發前1分鐘駕駛就拼命踩剎車，大喊「沒檔了、沒檔了」，同時狂按喇叭示警，江男開門往外跳，即便真要擋車，也已經來不及。
Let me neaten up the ET News link a little bit.
Once again, my lack of Chinese ability prevents me from being able to give an adequate translation of the text in the quotation above.
This word, 檔 , has really got me baffled. I want to say that it has to do with stopping the truck or slowing it down, but I can’t say that, because I can’t find an adequate translation of it to that effect.
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The female coworker in the vehicle with them, Chen Xin-yi, said that one minute before the accident the driver applied the brakes as hard as he could, and cried out “I’ve got no gears.” At the same time, he laid on the horn as a warning. Mr. Jiang opened the door and escaped the vehicle. Even if they wanted to stop the vehicle, it was already too late.
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Ah, gears, okay, thanks!
Yeah, “I’ve got no files” wouldn’t have made much sense, given the context. 
Gears in a car are 排檔.
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This is the footage from the dash cam of one of the cars hit. You can see the pile on coming for him.
I think that the truck driver did not have time to react because at the moment of the mechanical failure, all the cars in front of him had stopped for the red light. Plus it is a narrow road, he could not pull to the side or try to crash against a bigger structure, like a wall, or down a cliff, instead of plowing through the cars stopped at the light.
Just confirms that traffic lights are the most dangerous sites for accidents here in Taiwan.
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I think 仰德大道 itself is a big part of the cause of this accident too. It’s a poorly designed road, with too steep of a grade in several parts, and was never meant for the amount of traffic that travels on it now. For as long as I can remember, major accidents, often involving buses, have been occurring on this road on a regular basis.
Reminds me of the ol country.
In the road through YMS? O_o
The latest accident on what passes for a news channel here is CCTV of a red van running down a man and a woman on the side of the road just minding their business. Anyone see this? Seriously, what’s wrong with drivers here?
Again, my Chinese is untrustworthy, but assuming that the incident that I read about is the same incident as the one you saw on video, I got the impression that that may have been done deliberately, or semi-deliberately (i. e., a terribly botched scare tactic).
Even though the figures of the victims in the picture on the page linked below are small, I’m going to call this NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK OR CHILDREN:
狠夫不爽離婚 法院前撞死律師 妻重傷 - 社會 - 自由時報電子報
Edit: This appears to be a Taipei Times article on the same incident: