21-7-2023 (TAIPEI) A devastating accident occurred yesterday (20th) near a bus stop in Banqiao, New Taipei City, where a building’s air conditioner fell and fatally struck a female university student. The victim was a 22-year-old student from National Chengchi University. Authorities are actively investigating the incident, and in response, “China Times News” conducted an online poll on July 20th, focusing on “Who bears the greatest responsibility for the fatal accident of the air conditioner falling near Xinpu MRT Station, which led to the loss of the university student’s life?” More than half of the respondents believe that the responsibility lies primarily with the air conditioner repair worker.
The 22-year-old female student surnamed Huang was waiting for a bus near Xinpu Station in Banqiao when tragedy struck. A large outdoor air conditioning unit, which was being installed on the 17th floor above, fell and struck her head, causing her to lose her life on the spot. Huang’s sister witnessed the entire heart-wrenching scene and despite efforts by a compassionate nurse to administer CPR and rescue, her sister’s life could not be saved.
According to the “China Times News” YouTube channel, the online poll on “Who bears the greatest responsibility for the fatal accident of the air conditioner falling near Xinpu MRT Station, which led to the loss of the university student’s life?” had received more than 23,000 votes as of 11:30 p.m. on the 20th. 78% of respondents believe that the air conditioner repair worker bears the greatest responsibility, 12% think it is the homeowner, 6% attribute it to the building management center, and 4% gave other responses.
Various netizens expressed their opinions, stating, “Air conditioners should not be mounted on walls where people pass by; the area below should be cleared during construction,” “High-altitude work must be done with caution, perhaps the worker was alone, making it difficult to manage everything,” “Involuntary manslaughter charges are too lenient, causing people to neglect attention to detail and safety in their work. Similar tragedies will happen every few months,” “Why was there no supervision for high-altitude work? No one was managing below…”
