TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A man riding a heavy motorcycle died after colliding with a car going the wrong way on elevated Huan Dong Boulevard on Tuesday (Jan. 25).
Liu Yao-wen (劉耀文), traffic division chief at Taipei City Police Department’s Neihu Precinct, said Wednesday (Jan. 26) that officers had responded to a traffic accident in the westbound lanes of Huan Dong Boulevard after receiving reports at 10:48 p.m. Tuesday night, CNA reported.
According to their investigation, the driver of the car, a 41-year-old woman surnamed Wu (伍), was initially heading east on the boulevard, but she entered the opposite lane and began driving the wrong way when she reached the section of the highway above Jinzhuang Road (金莊路). According to Wu, she is not familiar with the highways of the area and was following the directions of a navigation app, Yahoo News reported.
Wu’s car first collided with a heavy motorcycle driven by a 22-year-old man, also surnamed Liu, who was on his way from Nangang to Neihu, then with a car driven by a 49-year-old man surnamed Kao (高).
The accident flung Liu from the upper level of the highway system to Chenggong Road below. He was rushed to the nearby Tri-Service General Hospital but died at 12:44 a.m. the next day, per CNA. Wu and Kao were uninjured.
In their preliminary investigation, police ruled out alcohol as a factor in the accident.
There have been reports of navigation apps giving wrong directions in areas where multiple levels of highways are stacked on top of one another, per Yahoo News.
