Taipei Staffers Owe NT$9.21M Traffic Fines

A crumpled discarded parking ticket on the roadside, New Taipei city, Taiwan


More than 1,300 of its employees, including police officers, owe almost NT$10 million in unpaid fines for violations of various traffic regulations

An unspecified number of people in Taipei City, the most excelled city of Taiwan, owed about NT$400 million after being caught by the police for breaking traffic rules.

But among the total, there were 1,323 employees of the city government who have not yet paid the over NT$9.21 million in fines meted out in 6,648 traffic tickets, according to a member of the Taipei City Council.

Another big surprise was the unusually large number of members in the police force — who are responsible for catching traffic violators — who were served with tickets themselves but refused to paid up,

A total of 122 police officers were served with 1,119 tickets. One at the Wanhua (District) branch of the police department was issued 302 tickets totaling NT$96,000 while another officer violated traffic rules 208 times.

The biggest rule breakers were employees working at the city's Department of Environmental Protection who were issued 3,264 tickets involving 464 staffers. One same staffer received 405 traffic tickets and another got 330.

At the Department of Education, which is responsible for teaching people how to behave and abide by the regulations, 251 staffers were served with 630 tickets.

A crumpled discarded parking ticket on the roadside, New Taipei city, Taiwan

Note: the traffic tickets were not issued while the violators were on duty.