Shouldn’t Ho-chen Tan Carry This Cross?

 Shouldn’t Ho-chen Tan Carry This Cross?

 United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)

 February 15, 2017

 Translation of an Except

Last July, a tour bus carrying Mainland tourists was engulfed in flames after a crash, leaving 26 passengers dead. The accident shocked both sides of the Strait. Premier Lin Chuan ( 林全) immediately ordered a full-scale review of budget tours and work shifts of drivers. Transportation Minister Ho-chen Tan (賀陳旦) demanded that all tour buses of Taiwan, numbering over 17,000, undergo inspection. Seven months later, the most disastrous accident in history occurred on the freeway system, leaving 33 passengers dead. Most of the victims were residents of Taipei City, and the tour bus in the accident, driven by an over-fatigued driver, was a 19-year old vehicle. If the post-disaster review of last July had been thoroughly implemented and improvement measures were double-checked one by one, then couldn’t this catastrophe have been adverted?

With regard to the age of tour buses and safety issues, domestic tour bus operators often utilize imported chassis and make bus bodies on their own. Sometimes due to excessive modifications, they neglected the structure and safety of the whole vehicle, becoming the principal factor in tour bus accidents. What people don’t understand is, while these problems abound, DPP legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) last year introduced a bill to amend the Highway Act demanding the “age of vehicles” be lifted, virtually going the opposite way on the issue of transportation safety.

Since Transportation Minister Ho-chen Tan assumed office, aside from the views he expressed on toll exemptions at night on freeways which were different from the general public, we actually haven’t seen any achievements from him. If we assign the responsibility of this fatal accident to the over-fatigued driver or the age of the tour bus, the conclusion, we are afraid, could be too cavalier. Tourism operators only care about making money and don’t care about safety. This trend, plus the inertia in management, that is not pragmatic, not innovative and not fully implemented by the government, is rather the main crux of the malaise. 

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