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“We never want to go back to Taiwan” How parents of American train crash victim seek to make TRA accountable?

“We never want to go back to Taiwan” How parents of American train crash victim seek to make TRA accountable?

Source:CHEN,MENG-XIU

Just that morning she had been texting her brother, right up until 8:00am. Senéad Short, an American woman teaching English in Taiwan on a Fulbright scholarship, perished when the Taroko Express train she was traveling in derailed in a tunnel near Hualien on April 2. Having done thorough investigation over the past five months, Short’s parents discovered that the Taiwan Railways Administration has failed to change its ways in spite of multiple incidents over the years. What next steps will they take?

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“We never want to go back to Taiwan” How parents of American train crash victim seek to make TRA accountable?

By Silva Shih
web only

It has been over five months since the crash of the Taroko Express train #408. The Hualien prosecutor’s office has successively brought charges against contractor Lee Yi-hsiang and others for negligence resulting in death and forgery, project management company CYL Engineering Consulting, and personnel at the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Hualien Maintenance Construction Office. The report issued in July detailing the results of the investigation conducted by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications further showed “clear oversights.” 

The first part of a fact-finding report issued by the Taiwan Transportation Safety Board in late August looks further behind the accident, touching on systemic issues within the TRA organization, and placing the blame squarely upon the TRA. 

Three foreign passengers were among the 49 to have perished in the accident. The parents of 24 year-old Senéad Short, an American killed in the wreck, are openly calling for a full investigation of the TRA’s responsibility.

“The interests of Taiwan Railway have outweighed the safety of the people.” say Kent Short and Joy Short, Senéad’s parents, during a virtual interview with CommonWealth at their home in Iowa.

A seed scientist, Kent’s work has taken him to three continents around the world, and seen him provide counseling to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Seeing Taiwan’s attitude towards reform of the TRA, he did not mince words, saying “This is a very bad reflection on Taiwan's status in the world community.”

As they wait for the TRA to implement reforms, Senéad’s parents are preparing to take a broader look at the TRA against international safety standards. They have retained legal representation in Taiwan and the United States, and are considering taking up a suit against the Taiwan Railways Administration from across the ocean in hopes of leveraging international pressure to oversee TRA’s reforms.

The Shorts plan to use any damages won to establish a foundation in their daughter’s name, to continue promoting Senéad’s ideals. Why are they doing this? Following is Mr. and Mrs. Short’s first-person account:


Senéad was a humanitarian. She completed her degree in international studies with a minor in French in 3 years. After her degree, she went to Lebanon and worked with Syrian refugees in Lebanon as a volunteer, trying to help the people. During that time, she learned Arabic. 

After coming back from Lebanon, she went to Fuzhou, China, and she was teaching English as a foreign language in Fuzhou. During that time, she applied for a Fullbright in Taiwan, she was very excited. 

Taiwan is a well-developed country. One of the leading countries in Asia that has highly intelligent people, has a very good culture. We felt very secure about her going to Taiwan. 

Senéad was the type of person who never missed an opportunity. During her break, she planned to have a trip to Hualien with a friend. We heard from Senéad’s roommate that she was very excited about this trip. 

(Source: CommonWealth Magazine)

While Senéad was on the train to Hualien, my son was texting with her on WhatsApp. All of a sudden, the text stopped. Anything you couldn't figure out because they were part way through the conversation. My son didn't think anything of it. 

But the next morning I woke up and I saw there was a big train crash in Taiwan, and I was very upset. So I texted Senéad and asked, “are you okay?” And she didn't respond. I called her and she did not pick up her phone. This is very unusual because she always has her phone, she's always texting, even if it's late at night. Then I was very concerned so I called AIT and Taipei City and they transferred me to someone. He said, all we can confirm, was that Senéad was on the train. We don't know anything more than that. 15 minutes later, we found that she was one of the casualties.

Afterwards we found her ticket, and the ticket was standing room only. She wasn't sitting on the train. I'm very angry because if you look at the AIT website, you look at safety suggestions, not only in Taiwan, but worldwide, it says if you take a train, sit in the aisle seats, and always face backward. If the train is going that way, you want to be facing the other way because if there's an impact on you, your seat will stop you. 

But instead of getting those instructions, Senéad bought a standing room only. (*Nearly two-thirds of fatalities were holding standing tickets.) It's unacceptable for Taiwan to sell standing room tickets on a high-speed train. 

I explored all kinds of documents and some documents I had to translate using Google Translate. From what I’ve read, since 2012, there have been 438 casualties on the TRA, which is totally government-run. But if you look at the Taiwan High Speed Rail, which is a public-private partnership, it has no casualties. 

If you go back and look at history, the TRA was awarding contracts, not based on quality, but based on the lowest costs. I know it's not profitable, but they were trying to lower their costs at the sacrifice of safety. 

The contractor of this incident was a low-cost provider who had in the past other issues that violated safety protocols, but did the TRA stop using him? No. TRA continued to use them with disastrous effects.

But what makes me so angry is that even government officials and government advisers say another accident will happen. But no one listened. How can a very respectable society for whom I have respect allow this to be ignored? Don't tell me that the people of Taiwan are any less smart, or any less capable. It's political corruption. The interests of Taiwan Railway have outweighed the safety of the people.

I remembered when I came to Taiwan to pick up Senéad, I was very impressed by how people were so respectful and helped us go through the process. 

But I was also angry because Taiwan has high restrictions for COVID-19 on how I could move around.  We only had 4 hours every day to go out and do things. When I come into Taiwan as a visitor, you're concerned about the people that I come in contact with for good reason, you don't want me to spread covid.  When I get on a train, you don't care about me. How can you have two systems where you respect life? 

(Source: CommonWealth Magazine)

Some might say the TRA has been generous, but I'm saying, no, they have not been changed. It is only by pursuing Taiwan Railway’s legal responsibility for higher compensation that there can be any hope of pushing Taiwan Railway to ensure people’s safety.

I have never used legal means in my life before. I still do not want to use legal means to solve this problem.

Joy was born in South Africa. Their apartheid system changed because the people want to change. It's the people that cause the change, it's not other people in high places having fights with lawyers with each other. 

The people have to realize that they need to stand up and say "this is enough". That's how we are trying to change people. We're trying to encourage the Taiwanese people to be courageous to stand up to the government and say this is unacceptable. 

Senéad had garnered strong interest in international diplomacy and hoped that one day she would become an ambassador for the United States. 

We don't want the money for ourselves. We want to use the money to help, maybe some other things in Taiwan, help the people in Lebanon, do various things, continuing to create Senéad’s legacy.

For us, it’s a very big impact on the family. If you talk to all the victims’ families in Taiwan, you will hear exactly the same story.

I don't expect a quick improvement. But we need to keep the pressure on the TRA. 

My personality is “to change”. I try to do something positive to make the next step. So Joy and I are now learning Arabic. We plan to visit Lebanon in the Spring of 2022. 

I read a line on Instagram the other day: “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can. ” That is all I want to say. 


Have you read?

♦ New railways chief calls TRA corporatization best path in wake of Taroko Express accident
♦ New directions in cross-strait relations: Richard Bush
♦ Covid Graduates: "The pandemic only makes us stronger"

Translated by David Toman
Uploaded by Jane Chen

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好友人數