《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Mayor seeks public safety boost

BLAST INJURIES: Plastic surgeon Tseng Yuan-sheng said that along with lacerations, a boy sustained burns to 33 percent of his body and man had inhalation burns

By Sean Lin / Staff reporter

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Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je （柯文哲） yesterday said that he would consult with the central government over how to achieve an equilibrium between the costs and benefits of adopting measures to improve safety on public transportation systems.

Ko made the remarks on the sidelines of a visit to Tri-Service General Hospital in Neihu District （內湖） to meet people injured in an explosion on a train near Songshan Railway Station on Thursday evening.

“When the incident occurred, we deployed additional police to help reassure people, but I know very well that the public panic triggered by these kinds of incidents is usually far greater than the actual damage done,” Ko said in response to media queries on whether the city government plans to consult the Taiwan Railways Administration and Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp over how to improve passenger safety.

Ko said that safety measures adopted for public transport systems should not inconvenience the public, adding that he would discuss with the central government how to identify ways to improve safety that would not affect people too much.

Ko said that although no one was killed in Thursday’s blast, some people needed to be intubated, while the injuries ranged from burns to lacerations, apparently due to shrapnel from the homemade pipe bomb, which went off in a carriage.

Tseng Yuan-sheng （曾元生）, a plastic surgeon at the hospital, said that a boy who is in intensive care is to undergo skin grafts after sustaining burns to 33 percent of his body, adding that venules in his left calf need to be mended after they were ruptured by a deep laceration.

A man surnamed Yu （余） sustained burns to 22 percent of his body in addition to inhalation burns, Tseng said.

A college student who sustained less severe burns had left the intensive care unit after their condition stabilized, he said.

Additional reporting by Peggy Liang

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES