NTU professor injured after being dragged hundreds of meters by bus
A National Taiwan University physics professor remains hospitalized after being dragged hundreds of meters with his foot caught in the door of a Taipei City bus last Thursday, June 11.
United Daily News reports that Tzihong Chiueh ( 闕志鴻 ), a respected cosmic dark matter and black hole researcher, was attempting to board a bus at the National Taiwan University Stadium Station at around 8:30 pm when the driver closed the door on his foot and drove away.
Professor Chiueh, 65, was dragged all the way to the corner of Xinsheng South and Heping East Road. As the bus slowed down to turn the corner, Chiueh managed to free his foot.
The bus driver remained oblivious to the incident.
A passerby alerted emergency services, and Chiueh was rushed to hospital, suffering friction burns to 20% of his body, and a broken hand.
According to the United Daily News report, Chiueh remains in the intensive care unit at National Taiwan University Hospital, but his life is not in danger.
Shin-Shin Bus Company Deputy General Manager, Yu Yuan ( 余淵 ) admitted that the driver was at fault, according to United Daily News. The driver had been talking to a passenger at the front door of the bus, and had not paid attention to the rear door. While Professor Chiueh was being dragged along the road, the driver did not check the rear-view mirror.
Yu said that the company will take responsibility and cover all medical expenses.
Chiueh was co-author of the paper “Cosmic structure as the quantum interference of a coherent dark wave“, published in Nature Physics in 2014. Taiwan Today noted at the time that the paper “sheds light on dark matter research.”
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Why didn’t someone on the bus stop the driver?
Not surprising. The quality of bus drivers here is severely wanting at times. Some of them are great, but some of them are terrible. We need more quality control in this area! (Same goes for driving in general, but I suppose that is true most everywhere.)