A family of four, including Hong Wen-bin, deputy chief of the Second Division of the Taipei City Fire Department, were hiking on the Kite Beak and Shaolai Trails in Heping District, Taichung City, on the morning of the 4th. While descending in the evening and passing the 31-kilometer mark of the Daxue Mountain area, Hong’s 36-year-old wife accidentally slipped and fell into a valley. Rescue workers carried the injured to a rescue point late at night, but after evaluating her head injuries and suspected fractures in all four limbs, doctors pronounced her dead.
The Taichung City Fire Department received the report around 5 p.m. yesterday and dispatched five vehicles with 17 personnel. Additional responders included four from the Forestry Bureau, two from the Heping Sub-bureau, four from the Mountain Rescue Volunteer Firefighters Squad, 11 from the Taichung Metropolitan Rescue Association, two from the Taichung 919 Rescue Association, three from the Taiwan International Search and Rescue Corps, four from the Mountain Rescue Association, and one physician from China Medical University Hospital, totaling 48 rescuers.
Hong Wen-bin reported to police and firefighters around 5 p.m. that he, his wife, and their two children had gone hiking on the Kite Beak and Shaolai Trails that morning. On their way back in the evening, near the 31-kilometer mark of Daxue Mountain, his wife accidentally fell 150 meters down a valley. After calming his two children, he climbed down the slope alone, reached the deep valley, found his wife, and stayed with her until rescuers arrived.
Rescue personnel arrived above the fall site around 9 p.m., set up ropes to descend, reached the injured, and used ropes to lift her to the rescue point. The injured suffered head trauma and suspected fractures in all four limbs. After evaluation by a doctor, she was pronounced dead. Firefighters and civilian mountain rescue personnel then carried the injured to the 30.5K trailhead, where an ambulance transported her to Dongshi Farmers’ Hospital.
(China Times)