SWEEPING REFORM: The Executive Yuan has ordered the transportation ministry to submit a bill for the creation of an independent safety committee within a month
Taipei Times
Date: Oct 26, 2018
By: Sean Lin / Staff reporter
The Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) accident reviews often exude an air of
Minister of Transportation and Communications Wu Hung-mo, right, yesterday bows during a news conference in Taipei to apologize for the Puyuma Express train derailment.
Photo: Lu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
complacency as if the agency “embraces its shortcomings,” Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
“The TRA had caused many accidents before. This time, it must engage in serious introspection and make strenuous efforts to introduce sweeping reform,” Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka quoted Lai as telling a news conference in Taipei.
The government must “let experience be its guide” and show determination to prevent similar tragedies if it is to live up to public expectations, Lai said after listening to a briefing by officials on Sunday’s derailment of a Puyuma Express train in Yilan County.
The government would take the first step toward reform by conducting an impartial, open and transparent investigation into the incident, which would establish facts based strictly on evidence and hold accountable all agencies and people who bear responsibility, he said. [FULL STORY]
