By KHT Staff. Image via TVBS.
PINGTUNG — Prosecutors have appealed a decision to release a repeat drink-driving suspect on NT$100,000 bail after a collision killed a university student who had returned home following her grandfather’s death.
The 20-year-old woman, surnamed Tsai (蔡), was studying in Kaohsiung. Her grandfather died early on Nov. 2, and she returned to Ligang Township (里港鄉), Pingtung County (屏東縣), to be with her family. She died after the crash that evening while out buying dinner, TVBS reported.
Police said the collision occurred around 6:51 p.m. on Sanhe Road (三和路). Tsai was riding a scooter out of an agricultural access road when it collided with a car driven by a 25-year-old man surnamed Chan (詹). She was taken to hospital but died from her injuries.
According to United Daily News, police said Chan was driving without a license and recorded a breath-alcohol reading of 0.81 milligrams per liter. Tsai and her scooter were pushed approximately 50 meters after the impact, the newspaper reported.
The Pingtung District Prosecutors Office sought his detention on suspicion of causing death while drink-driving after a previous drink-driving conviction within 10 years.
The Pingtung District Court instead ordered his release on bail and restricted his residence late on Nov. 3. Prosecutors appealed the following day.
According to the prosecutors’ account of the ruling, reported by the Central News Agency, the court found strong suspicion and a risk of flight but considered detention unnecessary under the principle of proportionality. It also found that differences between his previous cases and the current allegations did not establish a risk of repeated offending.
Prosecutors challenged that reasoning. They said Chan had completed a sentence for drink-driving in 2024 and appeared on Kaohsiung’s published repeat-offender lists on June 25 and July 2 this year. Those are publication dates, rather than the dates of the underlying offenses.
They argued that his record showed a substantial risk of further offending and that NT$100,000 bail offered insufficient protection against flight given the potential sentence and civil compensation claims.
Prosecutors also disputed the significance of Chan remaining at the scene and identifying himself as the driver, saying that did not remove the risk of him fleeing later. The court said it would forward the appeal to the High Court’s Kaohsiung branch, United Daily News reported.
