Summoning souls beside Yanshan Highway- Protestors demand government compensation

As a direct consequence of an on-going construction project to build an artificial lake in Pingtung’s Laiyi Township, continual traffic from over 100 dumper trucks traversing Wanlong Road section of Yanshan Highway each day has damaged the road surface and affected road users’ safety. In spite of the fact that the Water Resources Agency has already put a contract out to improve the road surface, no safety improvements have been implemented so far.

Sadly, the government’s dawdling in fixing the road surface has led to an unfortunate road-traffic accident that caused the death of a young 30-year-old female motorcyclist just the other day. Due to attend the joyful occasion of her brother’s wedding ceremony the following day, news of the young woman’s death left her whole family in a state of shock. Deep in sorrow and expressing their outrage over the situation, the woman’s family stood at the roadside where they performed a ritual to summon the girl’s soul back (a Chinese ritual to reunite the hun-soul and with the po-soul). 

Four years ago, township representative Zhuang Jing-Xing (莊景星) expressed concern that street lighting on the road section near the construction site was insufficient and had resulted in numerous road accidents, nicknaming it ‘Death Highway’ – to this day, however, there has still yet to be any road improvements.

Director of the county water resources agency Xie Sheng-Xin (謝勝信) expressed that with the sheer volume of heavy vehicles on the highway, there is concern that the asphalt road surface is being damaged and affecting road users’ safety. He added that the contractor responsible for implementing the new road improvements has been explicitly warned to maintain safety during the construction project – police and prosecutors will handle any accidents that occur during the maintenance work and if contractor negligence is found to be the cause, the contractor will be liable to pay compensation.  

Summoning souls beside Yanshan Highway- Protestors demand government compensation

URL:https://www.peopo.org/news/254019

(以下為中文對照)

沿山公路邊招魂 抗議訴求要國賠

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屏東縣來義鄉沿山公路萬隆段，因附近人工湖的工程施工，每天有上百車次的砂石車進出，造成路基損壞，影響用路人安全，縣府水利處發包改善路面，卻未做好安全防護，導致日前一名30歲出頭的女騎士，發生車禍不幸過世。女騎士隔天就要幫弟弟風光辦喜事，全家頓時驚慌失措。家屬在路旁進行招魂事宜，也沉痛表示抗議。
鄉民代秉莊景星在4年前就曾反映，該施工路段照明不足，常發生車禍事故，簡直就是死亡公路，但是至今仍在原地踏步,未見改善。縣府水利處處長謝勝信表示，該路段重車出入頻繁，擔心柏油路面的坑洞影響交通安全，發包改善，同時要求包商必須共同維護安全，針對該起不幸的交通事故，將交由警、檢單位釐清發生原因，若是包商疏失，一定會要求包商賠償。