TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – An unauthenticated tape recording suggested that the bus blaze which killed 26 people earlier in the week might have been caused by an unlicensed technician, media reports said Saturday.
On July 19, a fire broke out on a bus taking a group of Chinese tourists to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at the end of an eight-day tour of the country. The vehicle smashed into the railings of the No.2 Freeway, and all people on board perished, the Taiwanese driver, a Taiwanese tour guide, 23 tourists from the Chinese province of Liaoning and their Chinese guide.
A short circuit was seen as a possibility for the cause of the smoke and fire, but there were also still questions about why nobody succeeded in opening emergency doors.
According to unconfirmed reports Saturday, a sound recording was doing the rounds on the Internet of a conversation between an employee of the bus company and an outside technician.
During the conversation, one man blamed the company for employing an unlicensed technician nicknamed “Tiny Chen” and for allowing him to make illegal changes to the bus, including the addition of extra locks to the front and rear doors.
According to the reports, the two men said a previous incident, which ended with Chinese tourists escaping unhurt from a similar bus blaze, could also be blamed on the same practice.
One of the conversation partners suggested the bus company could put responsibility on the outside technician, since he had no official license and had worked at a business specializing in dismantling vehicles. He had also made some money by selling spare parts to bus drivers, the tape alleged.
One of the men also hinted that the smoke might have started in the air conditioning system, but that the expansion of the fire to the front of the vehicle would have been the result of the unlicensed work.
The two men described the late bus driver as a “rookie” and wondered why he had not stopped and opened the doors before it was too late.
According to the media reports, the Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office was investigating the origin of the tape, but there was no confirmation that it was authentic.