Written by Yi-hsiang Shih.
Image credit: 台中捷運中運量電聯車 by 台中市政府 / Wikimedia, Government Website Open Information Announcement.
On May 10, 2023, a construction crane fell from a construction site of Highwealth Construction Corporation (Xingfufa) and entered the tracks close to Feng-le Park station in Taichung. The falling metal object subsequently hit the moving MRT before it could stop, resulting in one death and 15 injuries inside the train. The incident sparked a wide-ranging discussion about public safety and also highlighted persistent structural problems with the outsourcing of construction projects, lack of staff training and inadequate emergency procedures. Although nearly a year has passed since the tragic incident, Taiwan’s public safety remains at risk due to a lack of accountability on the part of the government and construction companies. This article aims to review the Taichung Metro incident and, in doing so, underscore the multilayered structural issues beyond this single incident.
The Taichung Metro incident still has lingering effects, causing fear among many Taichung residents and travellers even now. However, less than a year after the incident, the Taichung Metro released a new advertisement using the homophonic puns of “salmon” (gui 鮭) and “return” (gui 歸). The poster says “niliuershang, tongguiyujin” (逆流而上，同鮭魚進). The first part refers to the phenomenon of salmon swimming upstream to lay their eggs, which is commonly used as a compliment for someone who swims against the current despite all the difficulties. The second part is where the problem lies.
The advertisement employs the phrases “tong” (with), “guiyu” (salmon), and “jin” (go)—”go with the salmon”—to mirror the initial segment. However, the term tongguiyujin (同歸於盡) itself means to die or to return to the end of life together. This led to members of the Taichung City Council condemning the advertisement for exacerbating the pain of survivors, victims, and their families. In response to the backlash, Taichung Metro acknowledged its oversight, resulting in the removal of the advertisement.
The question of accountability arises whether the Taichung City Government, Taichung Metro, and Highwealth Construction Corporation should be held responsible and potentially removed from their positions due to the lack of clarity around their responsibilities in the incident. At noon on July 10, 2023, more than 30 civic organisations launched the campaign “Don’t Forget the 510 Taichung Metro Tragedy: All People Demand the Truth and Accountability.” They went to the site of the accident in Taichung to hold a moment of silence in memory of the dead and injured, and went directly to Taichung City Hall to hold a press conference to demand that Taichung City Hall, Taichung MRT Corporation, the Ministry of Labor, and other relevant units disclose all information related to the case of the human-caused accident to the public. In addition to information transparency, they pointed out the structural and systemic factors behind this human-caused accident in accordance with the law, including but not limited to the insufficient regulations on the construction facilities in the restricted areas around the MRT, the safety of all construction sites, the failure to carry out safety inspections, and due to the outsourcing of companies, the legal liability is often borne only by the lowest level of implementation of the vendor or personnel.
The civic groups also organised a publicity campaign a month later, in which they held another press conference at the Legislative Yuan to investigate the responsibility again. Unfortunately, the responsibility and the truth are still unclear until today, 2024.
Although the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board released its investigation report on this human-caused accident at the end of November 2023, and the Taichung city government and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the Ministry of Labor each released their own so-called investigation reports, none of these reports can clearly indicate who should be held accountable. We will have to wait for the Transportation Safety Board’s final report in May 2024 before we can determine who to be held accountable on the basis of facts and relevant evidence.
Mr Wu Hao-Jen, vice president of the Human Rights Network for Tibet and Taiwan, expressed his sadness when he said that Lin Shu-Ya, an assistant professor of law at Providence University, a human rights activist and the only person who died in the incident, had received a commendation from President Tsai Ing-wen. Wu lamented that she must be the first person in history to receive a commendation for an unknown cause of death. However, despite such a high level of affirmation of the President’s commendation for service to the nation, the truth about Lin Shu-Ya’s death has yet to be revealed. The passivity and sluggishness of the various authorities involved, and even the public nature of the incident, have made it even more difficult for us to determine the ultimate responsibility for the incident. The public also feels the passive attitude of the authorities, who ignore the risks to people’s lives and travel safety.
Moreover, precisely because the responsibility for this major public safety incident remains unclear, the just-concluded presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan were not seriously affected by it. Instead, the pan-blue political parties led by Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen, also known as “Mayor Mom,” won a big victory. However, public safety incidents still occur in Taichung. For example, on July 15, 2023, to facilitate the delivery of construction materials for the new construction project of the Taichung Elderly Rehabilitation General Hospital, a concrete pump truck was illegally used to hang pipes. When the materials were not tied tightly, the cable suddenly broke and fell, killing a 29-year-old worker surnamed Su. Later, in October and December, three more severe accidents happened in Taichung, injuring one and killing two workers, including a migrant worker. Furthermore, even though it is only three months into 2024, the public has witnessed multiple major incidents related to public safety occurring in construction sites and beyond across the island.
When these tragedies occur, the first to bear the brunt are these vulnerable workers and their families. The question then arises as to how such accidents can be systematically prevented.
The Taichung Metro incident highlights the complexities of outsourcing engineering projects across multiple layers of vendors, questioning the adequacy of the MRT company’s system for detecting objects on the tracks. Furthermore, it brings to light the insufficient staff training for handling major incidents and the absence of a standard operating procedure. When the responsible parties pass the buck to one another and refuse to take responsibility, and when the public or people are indifferent to the truth, similar tragedies will eventually repeat themselves, and no amount of tears will bring back any life that has passed.
Yi-hsiang Shih, the current Secretary-General of the Taiwan Association for Human Rights, was enlightened in 2005 when he went to the Philippines to conduct a fact-finding mission on the human rights massacre at Hacienda Luisita. He has been working as a human rights worker for more than ten years now. Issues he focuses on include transitional justice, international human rights conventions, migrant workers and foreign fishermen, and Human Rights Responsibilities of Businesses.
This article was published as part of a special issue on ‘2023 to 2024: Looking Back, Thinking Ahead‘.
Taiwan Insight 