The transportation ministry is promising reforms to safety laws and regulations in response to multiple prominent accidents on roads and public transportation. Last week in Tainan, a three-year-old girl was killed and her mother injured after a vehicle hit them while they were crossing the street. Just two days later, a crane at a construction site collapsed and landed on a metro train in Taichung leaving one dead and 10 injured. On Sunday, protesters in cities across Taiwan demanded changes to improve transportation safety.
The government has been pressured to make changes since CNN wrote a story with a headline calling Taiwan’s streets a “living hell” last December. The story noted that traffic incident deaths are six-times higher than in Japan and five-times higher than in the United Kingdom per capita. In March, a report by the Construction and Planning Agency said it would take "100 years to completely improve pedestrian spaces.”
In a legislative committee hearing on Monday, transportation deputy minister Chen Yen-po (陳彥伯) responded to the criticisms and says the ministry will report on several issues within the week. This includes posting online the reported progress of each city and county regarding safety improvements to their respective intersections. Chen adds that they will also begin discussing how to revise the law to limit and improve safety of construction projects near the MRT.
Some legislators such as Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) suggest that the government prioritize publishing reports from cities and counties which have made the best progress first, in order to put pressure on other municipalities. Several other transportation officials at the hearing say that discussion and changes are underway to improve Taiwan’s transportation safety and reputation.