Taipei City Fire Department

In May a deadly collision caused a fire to erupt in the Hsuehshan Tunnel. The accident was made worse by poor fire safety equipment. After a comprehensive review, the National Freeway Bureau has decided to upgrade the equipment and improve monitoring systems.
Images of the Hsuehshan Tunnel collision that took two lives earlier this year still linger on the minds of drivers. Thick black smoke welled out of the tunnel, severely impacting evacuation procedures. Investigations reveal the cause to be defective fire safety doors that could not be shut properly.
Zhang Chong-zhi
Pinglin Traffic Control Center
Hinges on traditional fire safety doors allow them to stay in place and not shut automatically once opened. This caused the thick smoke to spread throughout the entire tunnel. We will look into fixing this issue.
On the 17th of this month, the National Freeway Bureau returned the speed limit in the tunnel from 80 to 90 km/hour. It also imposed a new regulation requiring passenger buses to maintain a safe distance of 100 meters from the vehicle in front of them. The monitoring system in the tunnel will be increased to 300 cameras. But due to structural limitations, automatic fire sprinkler facilities will not be installed.
Zhang Chong-zhi
Pinglin Traffic Control Center
Hsuehshan Tunnel is already open to traffic. Due to its design, to set up an (automatic sprinkler) system in the entire tunnel would require a cost-benefit analysis and careful assessment.
The National Freeway Bureau stresses that important lessons were gained from this tragedy. To prevent similar future accidents, sprinkler facilities will be added to the construction plans for long tunnels on the Suhua Highway improvement project. (FORMOSA NEWS)