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Volunteer has wiped 82,000 reflectors for free in 5 years

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Volunteer has wiped 82,000 reflectors for free in 5 years

Volunteer has wiped 82,000 reflectors for free

Chang Hsiu-hsiung, 74, has wiped clean 82,000 reflectors along highways in metropolitan Taipei, New Taipei and Taoyuan cities, including mountainous areas, in the past five years for free.

Chang said he is willing to do an almost full-time job of wiping reflectors clean for nothing because he had witnessed tragic traffic accidents. He began the self-motivated volunteer work five years ago after he retired.

But it is not totally for nothing as Chang will be given a special contribution award by the Directorate General of Highways (DGOH) in the Golden Road Awards ceremony on Aug. 30.

For the past five years, Chang went out for the cleaning work at 4 a.m. each working day and came home around noon. He has prepared a ladder and wiping cloth and taken note of the routes he has covered and the progress. He wiped clean all the reflectors on the routes for about a half year and then repeated the whole process all over again.

Chang said his wish is that every reflector at each turn is clean so that road users can see clearly what is on the other side of the turn and road safety can be enhanced. Many reflectors in mountainous areas had been colonized by ants or covered with spider webs, and he had restored all of them to clean and clear conditions, he said.

Chang said while he is cleaning reflectors, he is also cleaning his mirror of mind, and he hopes when he leaves the world, his mirror of mind is clear and shiny.

Chang, who lives in Zhonghe District, New Taipei, said at the beginning he regarded it as a morning exercise and cleaned the reflectors near his home, but he grew more and more attached to the work over time, and increased his workload from two to three days a week and two hours a day to working an average of 20 days a month and only taking a rest on long holidays or rainy days.

Chang had his share of adventures and accidents during work. At one time he was chased by four or five wild dogs and fell from his motorbike and got bitten by the dogs, another time he fell from the aluminum ladder because the reflector was too high, and his motorbike slid and fell to the ground two times due to mossy road surfaces, breaking five and two ribs, respectively.

Chang didn’t take the accidents seriously and optimistically said that the injuries were not serious because gods must be looking after him as he had done good things.

Chang’s children worried about their father due to the hard work but still supported him.