Transport firms check safety of vehicles

• Source: The Global Times
• [08:04 June 08 2009]
• Comments

By Wen Ya

Authorities have taken measures to improve the safety of buses following the fire in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Beijing Public Transport Holdings said that since Friday it had checked all of its buses’ oil tanks, electrical circuits, fire extinguishers and emergency equipment.

Every bus in Beijing has a fire extinguisher, Beijing Times reported yesterday.

All drivers and bus attendants should be given training on how to use them, it said.

Also, an unnamed supervisor from Beijing Public Transport Holdings said all buses had emergency switches that can be opened in “dangerous situations.”
 
All buses are also equipped with sliding windows since SARS in 2003, so passengers can escape, he said.

Shi Qijin, director of Shenyang Bureau of Transport in Liaoning Province said at a conference on bus safety Saturday that the city would cancel its order for air-conditioned buses, and ban people from carrying liquids on buses.

All bus operators should keep complete maintenance records, he said.

Bus companies should also carry out thorough examinations of their buses on a daily basis, the Shenyang Evening News said on its website yesterday.

The Xi’an Public Transportation Corporation in Shaanxi Province said it had examined all of its buses and ordered staff to carry out more frequent checks, the Hong Kong-based newspaper Wen Wei Po said yesterday on its website.

The Communications Commission of Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, ordered its bus drivers to “stop their vehicles and evacuate passengers whenever an emergency occurs.”

It has also organized three teams to supervise and examine buses, taxis and liquefied petroleum gas stations for safety hazards.

The Shanghai Municipal Urban Communications Administration Bureau and Shanghai Municipal Port Administration Bureau forbid passengers from carrying “dangerous things” that might catch fire or explode.