Traffic Accident Taiwan style
3yr. anniversary of the death of the 3yr. old girl who was hit and killed in Tainan while crossing the street with her mom. Just 3yrs. old. She was killed on May 8th 2023. This child’s death, along with countless others over the years finally became a breaking point for many and resulted in the growth of pedestrian and traffic safety advocates.
3yrs. later and so many deaths later…how has Taiwan and the MOTC done?
If I’m biased I’m sure as hell no more biased than you about Taiwan.
national pride? You’re not even making sense anymore using these personal digs.
Anyone here probably knows I’m way more invested in the US than Taiwan in most cases besides the issue of independence which is my only issue and economic. Why would I be biased for Taiwan and against the US in this regard of driving?
It’s just silly.
I can have an opinion about the topic that doesn’t require you to bring out some nationalistic nonsense about me when it’s so far off the mark.
A rare example of benign and mild Taiwan weather playing a factor in a car crash. Unfortunately, the great skills of this driver weren’t enough to handle the reckless speed given the road was covered on liquid black ice.
Insane. Another pedestrian killed. A woman standing by the street getting ready for the trash truck is slammed into at high speed by a car, killing her. The 67yr. old driver said his mind just went blank…no drugs and no alcohol. The victim had no chance. She was bending over to pick up the trash bag and by the time she turned her head the car was already there coming up on the right side of the trash truck and she was sent flying.
I can’t believe he didn’t die in that crash…well he still might die from his injuries but we’ll see
I guess he can still be highly skilled, it’s just his mind went blank. But if his mind hadn’t gone blank, he would be able to control his vehicle at speed better than most drivers in the world.
Only a measly 12% of revenue generated from traffic fines goes to improving traffic safety (roads, sidewalks, etc.). Of the 12% the top fours expenditures are all for purchase of enforcement equipment (presumably speed cams and tech. enforcement cams, etc…)…not the improvement of the roads or sidewalks. In 2024 traffic fines generated over NT$14 billion in revenue.
MOTC has submitted a proposal to increase the amount used for traffic safety to 30%…
Gemini AI translation of article:
Annual Traffic Fine Revenue Exceeds 10 Billion! Only 12% Used for Safety Improvements; MOTC Proposes Legal Amendment
(Assistant Editor: Chen Wen-ching, May 6, 2026)
Traffic citations are being issued one after another, and the money is pouring into government coffers, yet improvements to road safety seem unable to keep pace with the rate of enforcement. Whether fine revenue is being used to enhance the driving environment or has simply become a “blood transfusion” for local government finances has once again sparked heated public debate.
Last year (2025), there were 16,319,546 reported traffic violations across Taiwan, with total fines exceeding NT$10 billion. However, as much as 88% of these funds flow into unspecified accounts, leading to public suspicion that the fines have long served as a “petty cash box” for local governments. In response, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) has begun drafting an amendment to significantly raise the mandatory allocation for traffic improvements from the current 12% to 30%, hoping to accurately address the problem and spend the public’s hard-earned money where it is needed most.
Legislators Criticize “Vicious Cycle of Fining Without Improving”
Several members of the Legislative Yuan have issued harsh criticisms. Legislator Chen Ching-lung stated bluntly that while the government has been actively enforcing laws to shed the “pedestrian hell” label—issuing over 16.31 million tickets last year—the number of casualties remains high at 536,000 cases.
Taking the six special municipalities as an example, fine revenues in Taipei and New Taipei reached NT$2.4 billion each, yet only 12% was mandatorily allocated for traffic improvements. This is equivalent to using the public as an ATM to fill local fiscal gaps. Legislator Lin Yueh-chin further analyzed that local governments have averaged NT$13 billion in fine revenue annually over the past five years. However, among the priority uses for that 12% allocation, the top four items are the purchase of enforcement equipment. This creates a “vicious cycle” where the environment is not improved after fines are collected, forcing citizens to continue committing violations and being fined again.
Distribution of Revenue: Municipalities Receive up to 99%
According to the Regulations for the Allocation and Utilization of Revenue from Fines for Violations of Road Traffic Regulations, special municipalities can be allocated up to 99% of traffic fines collected on general roads, while other counties and cities receive 75%, with the remainder going to the national treasury.
In 2024, total fine revenue in Taiwan reached NT$14.262 billion. Despite this massive cash flow entering local pockets, it has not been reflected in improved traffic safety. The total number of traffic accidents has remained high in recent years, rising from over 370,000 cases in 2022 to over 530,000 in 2025. If local governments continue to focus on adding enforcement equipment without simultaneously improving road design, signal configuration, and pedestrian environments, they will fail to solve the fundamental plight of the traffic environment.
Amendment Expected as Early as the First Half of the Year
Regarding future reforms, Lin Cai-zhen, a section chief at the MOTC’s Department of Public Transport and Supervision, explained that traffic safety must be addressed through three major pillars: engineering, education, and enforcement—with enforcement serving as the last resort.
The future draft amendment will explicitly prohibit fine revenue from being used to install additional tech-based enforcement equipment, instead directing funds toward road environment improvements and accident analysis. Additionally, Professor Chen Kuo-liang of the Department of Public Finance at National Chengchi University pointed out that in the past, these unrestricted fines likely disappeared into a “large general pool” used for various local expenditures. He called for the full implementation of “earmarked funds,” where all traffic fine revenue is deposited into a dedicated account with traffic infrastructure listed as the primary expenditure. Only by improving road engineering at the source can traffic tragedies be brought to an end.
Lady, with her current boyfriend and a friend, meet up with her ex-boyfriend and his 2 friends to discuss/argue about something. Well the lady’s friend takes a swing at the ex-boyfriend as things get heated. The lady then goes into the car and tries to ram into her ex-BF and his friends. First time everyone barely dodged it…then the girl backs up and slams on the accelerator to ram them, running over them. Then the lady gets out and starts yelling and throwing things before driving away with her boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend and his two friends were all injured and were left in the street. Oh and she also has a criminal record for possession of drugs.
Grandma riding on a scooter with her 3yr. old grandchild. She goes from the side of the road and immediately cuts across multiple lanes and in front of a car coming up. Unsurprisingly she gets hit and takes a nasty blow to the head because of course she didn’t properly secure her helmet and then smacks the ground with head. She is also unlicensed. At what point will stuff like this be treated as child endangerment? Did the parents of the child know grandma was unlicensed? Luckily the kid suffered only minor injuries and was mostly just scared.
5 people on a scooter. Mom carrying 4 kids on her scooter. 2nd part of the clip is a guy riding around with his kid on the back with no helmet. The kid is so tired he falls asleep and is basically leaning back off the back of the scooter.
Bad excuses… I drove by this after it happened… but the “rain” he is using as an excuse was a few drops only… Only around half of the pedestrians were using an umbrella if that explains how tiny rain we are talking about…
The video is boring so put a picture, so anybody who is eager can search for it 
Well, it can’t be that these people are consistently driving into the infrastructure because there is some sort of skill gap. That’s been settled.
Sister-in-law of a deceased woman was on the road riding to the funeral. When she got there and was getting ready to take a left turn the large truck driver behind wasn’t paying any attention and just rammed into hit, killing her, and then crashing into the entrance of where they’re having the service.
On social media there’s a video of a foreigner riding a scooter on the East coast and being passed by a bit close by some speeding trucks as he is forced to ride on the shoulder. In the comments people shared a YouTuber’s video from 2020 when the visited Taiwan and encountered extremely dangerous truck driving. Deliberately tail gating, making extremely dangerous lane changes, honking…the usual.
More news from the incident of the driver squeezing past the right of a trash truck and killing a woman. The news here has the mother’s anguish on full display as she mourns the loss of her daughter. Right before Mother’s day at that. I wonder if Chen Shih-kai and other higher ups in the MOTC ever listen to these cries and think to themselves maybe they should fix things.
Going back to the Kaoshiung incident where a family was forced onto the road due to the qilou being blocked off…turns out there was a sidewalk there. It was illegally built over and being used as a qilou.
Kaoshiung Association for Pedestrian Rights went there to look at the area and check public records.
Private land on the left, public land on the right.
Facing the other way.
Guy in Miaoli is mad at another driver or something and cuts him off at the intersection and tries to open his door. Eventually he gets back in his vehicle and just drives through the red light into the intersection…all right in front of the Toufen police station.
No sidewalk so pedestrians are walking into the road and around legal parking spots. One guy is walking a bit far out, but as a driver seeing that pretty far away it’s easy to slow down or wait to change lanes. Instead the driver decided to almost hit the car next to him and slightly bump the pedestrian. The qilou was filled with scooters.
Also a large problem with illegal parking in Changhua…
Changhua
Also on Sanmin Rd (next to the train station) there’s a small sidewalk on one side but look at how massive the road is…just two lanes.
Fight in Tianmu. Guy illegally parking his scooter suspects a guy of recording him to report him. So he goes up to him and confronts him. This turns into a fight and the guy recording eventually pulls a knife and eventually gets thrown onto the ground. Then police eventually arrive.
I can’t help but wonder if she had her signal on. It doesn’t excuse the truck driver, but it might have saved her life (and anyone who has driven much in Taiwan can’t honestly say that signal use is consistent)
Also, you spelled skilled professional driver incorrectly
They probably like to sit around and marvel at how skilled the drivers are in Taiwan
Not sure that there’s any sugar left on earth after the sugar coating on this statement.
I don’t really get it when @TT insists that I’m biased towards defending Taiwanese driving becuase of nationalism or “Chinese culture” either. I think I am more critical of Taiwanese driving than you are.
Do you believe Taiwanese drivers are highly skilled?
@Andrew0409 , @hansioux , do you really think traffic islands in other countries take this much abuse?
I’d say that sounds like a design flaw if it’s been curbed 20 times.
About 1km from us on the country road leading to our house in Italy, there’s a mini bridge that people keep hitting the side and breaking the guard rail. Mostly for 2 reasons. One is there’s a blind turn before it and as I’ve explained Italians are 10000000x worse in lane discipline compared to Taiwan. The 2nd reason is the road is already narrow by the bridge shrinks it slightly and I think it freaks people out.
It must have been a few times it’s been broken and the last time I actually drove by with an old couple breaking it and falling into a ditch with police helping them.
But it’s clearly a flawed road design if that particular mini bridge is the place of accidents.
But what is now strange to me is why you have to constantly bring up this driving thread with everyone who disagrees with you. More than one have disagreed strongly with me and others but none seemed as insistent on trying to convince me or whatever on it past the discussion.
And whether or not driving skills are good or bad can just be their opinion without having to say someone is nationalistic and biased because of it due to some weird Chinese cultural thing.
Do you see me saying that to you in Canadian posts? I find that really adds nothing to our conversation and becomes adversarial for no reason. Does this opinion upset you that much for some reason?
I genuinely just don’t gaf about this traffic stuff anymore.
If it makes everyone happy or whatever and it ends tagging me every few days
Here:
Taiwanese are shitty drivers.
Signed
Andrew
Now where do I need to hand in my passport and ID because I’ve betrayed Taiwan not pounding my chest with nationalistic pride of amazing driving skills?
Not their fault! White SUV driver was deceived by car dealer by his car’s off-road ability 