This is the part that confounds me. Program green waves or put cameras. Just do even one.
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@foc claims they have a high tech system country wide!
Correct, I know that intersection well. I even commented before the accident that using black tar on the pedestrian part that is the same colour as the main road surface was going to cause an accident. Sure enough it (and Taiwanese drivers ) are killing people. Cha-bu-duo. The divider is also only a couple of inches above the road surface.
Poet
[!quote] focustaiwan.tw
Hsiao’s lack of a driver’s license and failure to properly yield to pedestrians at a crosswalk constituted sufficient grounds to charge him with negligent homicide over the girls’ deaths.
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This is what I was complaining about earlier. If the lady running across in front of cars is hit…then must be driver’s fault. No matter is at night at dimly lit intersection and she sees the cars have green light but she runs in front of them anyway.
I really do not like this division of responsibility. Under this situation every single jaywalker is not primarily responsible for being hit.
“A second review by a Traffic Accident Investigation Review Committee also concluded that Hsiao’s failure to maintain proper awareness at a traffic control signal intersection with a pedestrian crosswalk was a “secondary cause” of the accident, prosecutors said”
The division of responsibility can be quite a weird thing with traffic related stuff in Taiwan.
In the news recently.
Last year a pedestrian started crossing when the pedestrian signal was green but it turned red when she got halfway across. She stopped for a moment then continued to cross and was hit by a scooter and died from her injuries. Initially the motorcyclist was charged with failing to yield to the pedestrian and being prosecuted for wrongful death.
However, due to the poor lighting at the intersection the motorcyclist was found to have no fault in this incident as the woman continued to cross after the pedestrian light had already changed to red so the motorcyclist “only had 5s to react” and was eventually found to be at no fault.
In this case with the Changhua sisters it seems the driver being unlicensed is a major factor as he just shouldn’t have been on the road to being with. I forgot if he was already caught driving without a license or not before. Too many news stories so some of them I forget which is which.
The intersection at which the incident happened has insanely long crosswalks, much wider than the roads themselves. Both roads at this intersection are Prov. Higways (61B and 17) so as far as I understand this mostly falls under the Highway Bureau. If I recall correctly, after the accident the Highway Bureau has since made changes to the design of the intersection, however, on Google Maps the street and satellite view have not been updated since the accident happened.
I also seem to recall that in previous studies or something else that this intersection (two prov. highways) was deemed to be a safe design by the Highway Bureau, although I could be remembering some other incident or news so I’m not sure on this.
At the time of the accident it still looked like:
All of the pedestrian crossings right at the intersection are more than double the length of the road width. No sidewalks either.
On the North side, from shoulder to shoulder across the 4 traffic lanes (and the road divider) is ~15.5m The crossing there is ~35m.
On the East side, from shoulder to shoulder across the 4 traffic lanes (and the road divider) is ~20m The crossing there is ~44m.
On the South side, from shoulder to shoulder across the 4 traffic lanes (and the road divider) is ~15.5m The crossing there is ~35m.
Further over on the West side where the crossing, from shoulder to shoulder the distance is ~23m and the crossing is ~26m.
Feel beyond terrible for the kids and the family. Uncle had some surgery or something that day so he couldn’t take the kids home just this one time…
I still think about the boy talking to the news saying he hopes his sisters would get better soon so they could play together.
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Good, throw the book at him
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Problem is the guy was charged with homicide. So even a “secondary cause” means you are primarily responsible if actually charged with homicide. I just don’t think is fair. No mention of speeding…or driving drunk…using his mobile while driving…etc. If he was recklessly driving and hit the kids then that is different. But I see this every time I drive…people jaywalking across roads without even looking. I have been in a situation where people were jaywalking from the left and the right…while motorcycle was headed toward me driving in my lane. Hell, what is a driver to do but just try to avoid every dangerous actions to avoid hitting someone.
One way, one lane only, no turns, and everybody rides unmotorized tricycles.
Even then they would still figure out a way to kill each other and innocent bystanders…
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I would want to see video of the incident to have a firm opinion about the situation. If the kids darted out behind a large vehicle that was waiting for them and the driver was going at a safe speed in a dark intersection… still unlicensed (for what reason, and what little that is worth).
I also ride a motorcycle and am regularly dodging pedestrians who have no business being in the road. Sometimes it is a close call because of their stupidity.
But I’m licensed and very aware of what is happening. I know the average driver is taking more risks than i am while paying less attention…
The kids were crossing at the North side of the intersection.
They probably couldn’t see the car coming at first due to the bushes that are planted in the road divider. By the time they noticed they probably thought it was still okay not accounting for the speed or it was too late. I can’t recall what was reported in the news.
Street view is from January 2024 and the accident happened in February 2024, so the bushes should be similar size as the street view. Looking at street view in 2014 they used to put up plants on the entire section right up to the intersection creating more blind spots. In many places they do this and has caused accidents due to creating major blind spots for both pedestrians and drivers/motorcyclists yet pretty much nothing is done about it. After enough accidents they might just put in another traffic light instead of doing anything to fix the design issues.
Speaking of bushes. Here’s a uncontrolled crossing on Prov. Highway 1B that runs through Taichung city…you know where it’s busy. Zero lighting, trees and bushes on the road divider completely blocking everyone’s view. It is absurdly dangerous. I remember reporting this intersection on the improvement platform but I can’t recall what response I got as around that time I think I reported about 20+ other locations and I got a flood of e-mails from various departments within a few days of each other, most of which were saying blah blah blah, the road/light/line etc. etc. follows the existing traffic regulations.
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Well we are going to get some type of tinted window regulation sometime down the road. As for how they will implement it and to what degree still remains to be seen.
I honestly wouldn’t be surprised to see fines being issued on the freeways for drivers using their phones. They already started using the traffic cameras to do that for people not wearing their seat belts…well if they can actually see through any of the tinted windows.
The Highway Bureau was to have a public hearing/meeting with traffic safety groups/advocates. People were notified only yesterday, the 24th, that the meeting would be today, the 25th. It was a sudden announcement and only with seeking the help of some politicians were the traffic safety advocates able to get the meeting postponed to actually allow them time to prepare.
The document drawn up for the meeting was already finalized and printed out on the 20th, yet the Highway Bureau waited until less than 24hrs. before to notify people.
The document title is about the car windshield and the side windows, so presumably it’s regarding the window tints, however, the full text of the purpose of the meeting on the document is not pictured.
This has led to complaints of the MOTC/Highway Bureau trying to give little time to prepare for civic groups so that some may not be able to attend, thus allowing the MOTC to say no one came so the civic groups have no opinions regarding the matter.
If I recall correctly this has been a tactic they have employed before. I think last time they did it was when the MOTC held the meeting with the professional drivers union and traffic/pedestrian safety groups and they were given little time to prepare due to the relatively short notice. I could be remembering wrong though so don’t quote me on it.
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Thank you. I wish I did not have so many tales of danger on the roads in Hualien…
News article came out about this. The civic groups that would be participating were going to include Vision Zero Alliance, Safe Driving Alliance, Next Generation People Focused Transportation Alliance, and even the Consumer’s Foundation (which had a poorly written article that was not well received by many advocating for safer roads and pedestrian environment).
Many groups did not receive any notice regarding the date of the meeting until one day before leaving many with little to no time to prepare or organize their schedules. Various groups jointly criticized Highway Bureau for the extremely late notice, especially since many members of such groups are also just regular working people who may need to take time off of work to attend such meetings.
Ultimately the meeting was delayed to the end of the month.
Aerial shot of the intersection where the Changhua sisters were hit and killed has recently been shared online showing the changes to the intersection.
Before:
After:
Also a picture of the crossing on the East side of the intersection.
Before:
After:
Left turning driving almost takes out a group of people crossing the street.
To add onto a previous post about police officers getting some very basic stuff wrong sometimes…Hualian police have gifted us with another example.
Guy on a scooter is on round island trip driving in the outer regular traffic lane (not the motorcycle/slow lane) on Prov. Highway 9 going through Hualian. He gets waved down by a group of officers. He gets reprimanded for driving in the regular traffic lane. The rider responds he didn’t do anything wrong, there is no marking banning motorcycles from the lane he was riding in. The officer then refutes him by saying that if there is a motorcycle lane you HAVE to ride in that lane you can’t ride in a regular traffic lane.
The police responded that the officers were simply worried about the rider’s safety and only advised him. They said they will improve the officer’s education. They couldn’t admit that their officers simply made a mistake and made someone pull over for no reason. Also despite talking about “safety” the in the clip in which the rider is pulled over by the side of the road not a single vehicle passed by the whole time. His side of the road was completely empty.
Also noticing some more places around Taichung getting renovated sidewalks in which they are being widened and having actual corners added which significantly improves visibility and reduces crossing distance. That being said, I don’t think I’ve noticed any areas that are actually getting brand new sidewalks rather than projects in areas that already have sidewalks. Even the painted sidewalks…not sure if we are getting very many if any of those either.
Also spent a few days going around to a few cities and it sure is depressing how as soon I cross the street from a train station the sidewalks immediately disappear and you have to walk into the slow/motorcycle lane. Could easily adjust the space to have sidewalks, even if it means removing the slow/motorcycle lane which is mostly useless due to the large amounts of illegal parking anyways.
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The Japanese tourist has died from her injuries after 16 days…
Driver seems to be facing a negligent death charge and is out on bail (NT$60,000).
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I hope this really blows up and causes a big stink in Japan. This will then, hopefully, force Taiwan’s (very reluctant) hand to take action.
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If I recall correctly Japan already has a travel advisory for nationals visiting Taiwan with regards to the traffic.
If I recall correctly the last time a Japanese pedestrian in Taiwan was hit was only a month or two ago up in Taipei/New Taipei and that person was run over by a turning vehicle.
For this particular incident I’m not sure much will come of it. I think it was reported in Japanese news a day or two after it happened. Even with the recent announcement of the woman’s death. It may be overshadowed by a recent major traffic accident that has occurred in Japan in which 7 people were injured by an elderly driver that accelerated up onto the sidewalk in Nagoya.
Even in Taiwan a lot of people have probably aeady forgotten about it. Kaoshiung city already put up a fence where the woman was hit.
I can’t help but wonder how many people remember the family crossing an uncontrolled crossing where no one was yielding to them and drunk driver slammed into the family, killing the mother. That was also in Kaohsiung.
Or the family in Taichung crossing the street by China Medical University and were hit by a left turning bus, killing the mother and the 1yr. old child.
There are so many stories and incidents that people lose track of all of these things and become numb to it.
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Well…it could’ve been worse.
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