The TVBS morning news report says that they have found three cars with the four bodies that were buried in the land slide. The taxi and the female driver, the black benz with the boyfriend and girlfriend, and the blue toyata with the Christian minister have all been recovered. No survivors. 
There is still confusion as to whether or not there is a fourth car still missing in the land slide and the workers continue the search.
Very sad, lets hope that at least they suffered not more then a few moments. Truly terrifying five seconds reportedly from normal freeway to being covered ten stories high.
The landslide brought by Morakot was at the same lightning speed.
Horrible beyond horrible. Like at around 11-12 they found a mangled tire and a fender. In the course of the night, they found more pieces and bits. The first two bodies … you don’t wanna know…
The woman taxi driver’s birthday was this 30th, and her son had prepared a party for her, booked a nice meal, etc. She was working overtime on Sunday. The pastor was also working overtime, as he received an urgent call from a customer…
In some early shots, you will se a blue car that slammed against the edge of the landslide. There was an 83 year old a-ma in it.
There was a professor on TV last night talking about how the anchor weights had not been maintained properly. They showed the ends of the bars that had been exposed following the landslide and they were rusting away. It does seem to be negligence.
As always, a main factor in many disasters.
youtube.com/watch?v=_OvfyJm2 … eature=sub
The workers have been at it 24/7 in tough conditions. These guys are doing a lot to get the trapped cars and people out and to remove the earth to get the road moving again.
And the bodies have been messed up pretty badly seeing as how the vehicles have ended up in pieces.
(no gore shown, but you can see how one vehicle is really just a heap of scrap)
youtube.com/watch?v=Pz5FvYO3 … eature=sub
Smart does mean shit, but perhaps not in the definition or its application that you have in mind. Now, having a PhD doesn’t mean smart, if that’s what you really are trying to say. Some PhD holders are smart, but in too many cases Phds are easily avalable to anyone who can hand over the money.
Hell, I got mine for 200 Baht , and i was Robbed, I tells ya.
Such a tragedy, and one easily avoided by building the road in a different position, or doing preparatory earthworks in a more comprehensive manner. Relying on a weeny little barrier to hold a hill in place indefinitely is a bit lame. Heads should roll, but you can bet that the right ones won’t. Unfortunately, much of Taiwan’s infrastructure is riddled with similar instances of future tragedies just biding their time.
Urodacus, I’m just SICK of people like you who don’t love Taiwan enough. Taiwan is GREAT! Its going to be an Asian operations hub with hello kitty LOVE power. How DARE you! :fume:
Apparently there’s a 9km stretch of the 3, down near Guanmiao, where a dangerous slope hangs over the road. Exactly the same scenario with a steep slope, sediment layers running downhill, cutting at the bottom for the road to pass through and a few bits of concrete tacked onto the cut face to hold it all up.
Nine kilometers. I pass through there all the time. 
Asian-Pacific my friend. Come on, our ambitions are huge. Our reach…even greater.
[quote=“redwagon”]
Lawyers, businessmen and gangsters go into politics all the time. How many politicians have you ever heard of that have an engineering background?[/quote]
Most of the PRC Politburo Standing Committee.
Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are both engineers, as is heir presumptive Xi Jinping.
[quote=“Mawvellous”][quote=“redwagon”]
Lawyers, businessmen and gangsters go into politics all the time. How many politicians have you ever heard of that have an engineering background?[/quote]
Most of the PRC Politburo Standing Committee.
Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are both engineers, as is heir presumptive Xi Jinping.[/quote]
Just returning from China - the road construction whitnessed there is neither better nor worse than the one of Taiwan.
Apart from the roads, who are from OK to horrible, even Shanghai freeways.
[quote=“Mr He”][quote=“Mawvellous”][quote=“redwagon”]
Lawyers, businessmen and gangsters go into politics all the time. How many politicians have you ever heard of that have an engineering background?[/quote]
Most of the PRC Politburo Standing Committee.
Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are both engineers, as is heir presumptive Xi Jinping.[/quote]
Just returning from China - the road construction whitnessed there is neither better nor worse than the one of Taiwan.
Apart from the roads, who are from OK to horrible, even Shanghai freeways.[/quote]
Having just returned from driving over 2000 km around western China, with waaay too much of it on roads under construction, I’d go with worse, much worse in China. The politicians might be engineers, but the guys getting it done are mostly peasants with hammers and trowels. Even if the planning is ok (not that that often happens) there are also so many opportunities in between the planning and the final execution for “cost cutting”, chabuduo-ism, negligence, etc…
The phrase “Shanghaiese engineer” evokes much laughter around China. Shanghaiese are tailors, insurance clerks, salesmen, scammers and thieves… not engineers. I’ve met quite a few Shanghaiese with engineering degrees and not one of them would know one end of a shovel from the other.
Back on topic, there is more talk about how many slopes in Taiwan are as dangerous as this one, and how many would cause a disaster if they slid. One shocker (if it turns out to be true) is the story that a great deal of housing in Taiwan is built on such slopes and that the government has refused to publish which are dangerous because of the impact that information would have on housing prices.
[quote=“redwagon”]The phrase “Shanghaiese engineer” evokes much laughter around China. Shanghaiese are tailors, insurance clerks, salesmen, scammers and thieves… not engineers. I’ve met quite a few Shanghaiese with engineering degrees and not one of them would know one end of a shovel from the other.
[/quote]
So Shanghainesse are incapable of being engineers and are only fit for low status or criminal occupations. 
Hu and Xi are not from Shanghai in any case, and are not part of Jiang’s Shanghai Clique.
[quote=“redwagon”]The phrase “Shanghaiese engineer” evokes much laughter around China. Shanghaiese are tailors, insurance clerks, salesmen, scammers and thieves… not engineers. I’ve met quite a few Shanghaiese with engineering degrees and not one of them would know one end of a shovel from the other.
Back on topic, there is more talk about how many slopes in Taiwan are as dangerous as this one, and how many would cause a disaster if they slid. One shocker (if it turns out to be true) is the story that a great deal of housing in Taiwan is built on such slopes and that the government has refused to publish which are dangerous because of the impact that information would have on housing prices.[/quote]
Yep, 304 areas, if I recall correctly, are under “observation”. They were explaining something as to the matter, saying a retention wall shouldn’t be more than say, 4 meters, and separates at least 2 meters from the next dwelling. I know and I’ve seen many places for sale that have these huge hills behind, with small or no walls in between… Oh, and somewhere in Xindian is one of the areas under scrutinity…
As to any builders, who belong to privileged castes, wrapped in impunity from political parties, anywhere in the world, with or without any engineering background, there is more dfanger of them being a bit reckless with building as to, well, what’s the worst that could happen? They do not live there, they can control the press if something bad happens, they are untouchable, and most importantly, they wanna make big bucks fast. That happens anywhere in the world, and when all these factors convey, then watch out as greed unleashes nature’s worst side.
No, not at all. Some of them are very good tailors. 
[quote=“zyzzx”][quote=“Mr He”][quote=“Mawvellous”][quote=“redwagon”]
Lawyers, businessmen and gangsters go into politics all the time. How many politicians have you ever heard of that have an engineering background?[/quote]
Most of the PRC Politburo Standing Committee.
Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao are both engineers, as is heir presumptive Xi Jinping.[/quote]
Just returning from China - the road construction whitnessed there is neither better nor worse than the one of Taiwan.
Apart from the roads, who are from OK to horrible, even Shanghai freeways.[/quote]
Having just returned from driving over 2000 km around western China, with waaay too much of it on roads under construction, I’d go with worse, much worse in China. The politicians might be engineers, but the guys getting it done are mostly peasants with hammers and trowels. Even if the planning is ok (not that that often happens) there are also so many opportunities in between the planning and the final execution for “cost cutting”, chabuduo-ism, negligence, etc…[/quote]
Like here. However, I said the construction, where they at least in the east seems to be using modern equipment.
The roads themselves go from the good to the fucking horrible.
Freeway from Jiading to Shanghai Port is a case in point.
I thought freeway number one was American designed and built by South Korean companies and others? Who did these freeways? Who designed them and built them?
Taiwan HIghSpeedRAil is largely Euro designed with Shinkansen trainsets adapted to run on Eurotrain specs. Who did the actual subcontracting work?
Has anyone heard where the road closure on Highway 3 begins or ends?
The National Freeway Bureau doesn’t actually mention it explicitly under the road closure sections:
freeway.gov.tw/Publish.aspx?cnid=197
The English site did not even mention the accident:
freeway.gov.tw/English/default.aspx