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Settlement agreements signed under duress, say relatives of Taiwan bus blaze victims

By Yuan Can (People's Daily Online)    17:47, July 27, 2016

Photo taken on July 19, 2016 shows the accident site of a coach fire in Taipei, southeast China's Taiwan. A tourist coach caught fire on a highway near Taoyuan Airport on Tuesday, killing 26 people on board, including 24 mainland tourists from northeastern Liaoning Province. (Xinhua)

Although the families of all but one victim of the tour bus fire in Taiwan have signed settlement agreements with insurance companies, many are dissatisfied by the absence of clearer information about the accident. Some report that they felt forced to sign the agreements, according to a report by Guancha.

"All of us signed the agreement because we were helpless. Nobody came to speak with us. I didn't even know who I was settling with! We were just forced into it," said Li Jianliang, the husband of victim Lin Caizhu. Li continued, "I'm definitely coming back to sue the Taiwanese government."

The first batch of victims' relatives returned to mainland China on the afternoon of July 26, but some are still indignant that Taiwanese authorities have not yet identified the main cause of the fire, according to a report by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV.

According to Wang Yi, brother of one of the victims, most of the families didn't want to sign the agreement until an investigation into the accident yielded answers. But because their visas expire on July 28, after which their accommodations will not be covered by the travel agency, the families were "left with no choice but to settle," Wang said.

Aware that five bottles of petroleum were on the bus at the time of the crash, Li suspects that the fire was a terrorist attack. He blames Taiwanese authorities for being too lax in road examinations and supervision. 

(For the latest China news, Please follow People's Daily on Twitter and Facebook)(Editor: Yuan Can,Bianji)

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