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Taiwan Taroko Express train crash
China

Illegal foreign worker detained over deadly Taiwan train crash

  • Worker from Vietnam is the second suspect to be held over the island’s worst railway disaster in decades
  • Fifty people were killed and over 200 were injured after the train hit a truck that had slid onto the tracks

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Rescue workers pull a train carriage from the tunnel in Hualien on Tuesday after the deadly crash. Photo: Reuters
Kyodo
An illegal foreign worker has been detained as a second suspect in Taiwan’s worst train derailment in seven decades in Hualien county on the east coast that killed 50 people and injured more than 200 others, authorities said on Thursday.
Chief prosecutor of the case at the Hualien District Prosecutors Office, Chou Fang-yi, told reporters that two men were suspected of causing the April 2 disaster and the court had approved their request to detain the second suspect, who she said was a foreign worker from Vietnam who was in Taiwan illegally.

The main suspect, Lee Yi-hsiang, has been detained for further questioning since Sunday. The court has seized Lee’s assets to prevent him from transferring his personal assets and those under his two companies that are subcontractors of the Taiwan Railway Administration.

Lee Yi-hsiang offered a public apology as he was led away by police on Sunday in Hualien. Photo: EBC via AP
Lee Yi-hsiang offered a public apology as he was led away by police on Sunday in Hualien. Photo: EBC via AP

As Lee also serves as a construction site manager for the TRA, rail authorities say Lee lied about his identity to circumvent the law that prohibits holding both positions, construction company owner and construction site manager.

Authorities also found that Lee lied about inspecting the construction site alone. Surveillance camera footage showed that more vehicles and other people were at the site on the day of the accident, even though the TRA had ordered all construction work to be halted during the four-day tomb-sweeping festival.

Investigators said Lee was not alone, but instead with a man caught on surveillance camera with him in the crane truck loaded with waste tyres. Prosecutors identified the passenger as the illegal worker from Vietnam.

Lee is the driver of a crane truck that rolled down a slope on April 2 and caused the accident. Railway authorities suspect that the truck was parked without the emergency brake engaged.

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Taiwan releases dramatic footage of train crash which killed 50 people

Taiwan releases dramatic footage of train crash which killed 50 people
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