TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A woman and her young daughter were killed in a collision with a truck on National Highway 3 on Saturday (Aug. 3).
The Miaoli County Fire Bureau received a report at 1:42 p.m. that day that a traffic accident involving a truck and a sedan had occurred at the 121-kilometer mark on a northbound lane of National Highway 3, CNA reported.
The driver of the sedan, a 44-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), only suffered scratches and bruises, but his 39-year-old wife and five-year-old daughter suffered serious head and chest injuries. The two were pronounced dead after being rushed to the hospital.
The truck driver, a 34-year-old man, was in critical condition.
The truck belongs to a frozen food company based in Taoyuan. According to a foreign migrant worker who was a passenger in the truck at the time of the accident, the driver was returning after making a delivery in Taichung.
The truck driver spotted Chang and his family standing in the middle of the highway outside their blue BMW sedan after it had been involved in a car accident.
The truck driver abruptly turned the steering wheel in an attempt to avoid the sedan, but he lost control of his truck, which hit the side of the other vehicle before slamming into a guardrail and rolling over on its side, CNA cited the worker as saying.
According to an investigation by the National Highway Police Bureau (NHPB), the front and rear of the BMW were seriously damaged. The bureau said its initial inspection indicated that before the truck arrived, Chang had lost control of the sedan, hitting the guardrail and coming to a stop between the middle and outer lanes.
Chang, his wife, and their daughter got out, and while they were waiting for assistance next to the car, the truck slammed into it, the bureau added. The bureau is continuing its investigation into the accident.
