TAIPEI MEETING: While MOTC head Lin Chia-lung’s offer was about 20 percent more than TRA’s package, a representative for the families said it was far too low
Taipei Times
Date: Jan 25, 2019
By: Shelley Shan / Staff reporter
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) yesterday failed to reach
Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung, second right, yesterday speaks at a meeting in Taipei with families of those killed in the derailment of a Puyuma Express Train on Oct. 21 last year, as Taiwan Railways Administration Director-General Chang Cheng-yuan, right, and other officials look on.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
agreement on compensation for the 18 people killed in the Puyuma Express derailment on Oct. 21 last year, as victims’ families were not happy with the amount offered by MOTC Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍).
Yesterday’s meeting was Lin’s first with the family members since he took office on Monday last week. Ministry officials have met three times with the families.
Lin offered a compensation package of NT$13.2 million (US$427,392) per victim, about 20 percent more than the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) offer of NT$10.75 million, not counting the NT$100,000 in emergency funds given to the families shortly after the accident.
The TRA had based its offer on the settlements reached after the derailments of an Alishan Forest Railway train in 2004 and a 2007 commuter train in Yilan County’s Dali Township (大里), which were NT$9.5 million and NT$9.6 million respectively, and taking into account an inflation rate of 13 percent since 2008. [FULL STORY]
