r caused by Typhoon Kalmaegi hit the car she was in at around midnight yesterday on the southern east-west cross-island highway. The death of Yang Chien-yi raised the toll related incidents caused by the tropical storm to 20.
Three men were also injured in the incident involving Yang.
Yang, a senior staff member of a communications firm in Taipei, was retained by Taitung County Magistrate Kuang Li-jen to make a short film about the harvesting ceremonies of aboriginal tribes.
After finishing her work, Yang started returning north in a car driven by Hsieh Yao-jer, a camera man who helped produce the film.
But the car broke down due to a fire and they hitched a ride with a car owned by two Chen brothers.
When the car was moving between Hsiangyang and Shuyuan, a giant rock rolled down from the mountain and hit Yang in the back seat. Yang, 40, was killed at the scene while Hsieh, who was also in the back seat, was injured.
But Hsieh managed to get out of the car and pulled the Chen brothers, who were also hurt, to safety.
Rescue teams came a little past midnight after Hsieh made emergency calls to take the injured three to hospitals.
A fire department officer from Taitung said it took several hours to lift the two-ton stone and clear up the area. He said the same section cross-island highway, at an altitude of 1,800 meters above sea level, already saw land and rock slides on July 17 when the tropical storm caused a landslide in northeastern Taiwan.
Traffic resumed the following day.
He said the fall of the giant rock was mainly caused by the heavy rain, which changed the earth's structure up on the mountain.
The storm triggered flash floods and landslides when lashing southern Taiwan with torrential rains.
Aside from the latest casualty on the mountain highway, the death toll in other accidents rose to 19 as six other people remained missing as of yesterday, said the disaster relief center at the central government.
Officials at the center said mudslides buried two houses in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan to become the severest mishaps, killing seven people.
Most other victims were washed away and drowned by rampaging waters.
Tropical storms often hit Taiwan between July and September. Kalmaegi, the Korean word for sea gull, was the first storm to hit the island this year.
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