Drug-Driving Crash in Changhua Kills Two, Sparks National Outrage
A horrific drug-driving incident in Changhua County in the early hours of Monday left two people dead and two injured, triggering a wave of national outrage over Taiwan's escalating drug-impaired driving crisis. The driver, a 31-year-old man identified by his surname Kao, was behind the wheel of a BMW sedan while under the influence of amphetamines when he lost control at extreme speed on Zhonghua Road Bridge around 4:20 a.m.
According to police and eyewitness accounts, Kao was traveling eastbound when he first struck a 64-year-old motorcyclist — a grandfather who sold vegetables at a local market — with such devastating force that the motorcycle was torn in half and the rider suffered catastrophic injuries from which he could not recover. Rather than stopping, Kao's BMW continued onto the bridge, where it struck a traffic island and then collided head-on with a white sedan carrying a newlywed couple. The 24-year-old female driver, identified by her surname Weng, was trapped in the mangled wreckage; her husband, who was in the passenger seat, survived with brain bleeding and fractures but was left to watch helplessly as his wife bled out before emergency responders could extract her.
Surveillance footage of the crash, which circulated widely on social media, showed Kao's BMW moving at such speed it appeared as a blur — the husband later estimated it was traveling at approximately 180 kilometers per hour. Disturbingly, after the collision, Kao allegedly emerged from his vehicle in a dazed state and, when the surviving husband begged him to help rescue his trapped wife, responded that he "felt dizzy" and declined to assist. It later emerged that this was not his only callous act: Kao first checked his own vehicle for damage before approaching the victims.
Kao's father arrived at the hospital hours later and publicly apologized to the victims' families, acknowledging that his son had a history of methamphetamine use and was due to travel south for a construction job that morning. The admission has done little to quell public fury. The victims' families have been vocal in their anguish — the newlywed husband stated he "sees his wife's face every time he closes his eyes" and has called for the maximum possible penalty, while the elderly motorcyclist's family noted he would never meet his unborn grandchild. Prosecutors moved quickly to detain Kao upon his discharge from intensive care, charging him with drug-impaired driving causing death.
The Changhua tragedy is the latest in a string of drug-driving incidents that have pushed the issue to the forefront of Taiwan's public safety debate. In recent weeks, a separate amphetamine-impaired collision in New Taipei injured 14 people, while a ketamine-related crash in Kaohsiung prompted another fatality. More than 6,000 citizens have signed an online petition demanding the government raise maximum penalties for drug-impaired driving to include life imprisonment and the death penalty. The Ministry of Transportation has confirmed it is studying legal amendments to increase both criminal liability and a system of "joint penalties" that would hold passengers who knowingly ride with an impaired driver partially accountable.