Chinese cities inspect bus facilities

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-08 21:19

CHENGDU - Cities across China inspected bus facilities over the weekend after the fatal bus explosive which killed 27 and injures 76 in southwest China's Sichuan Province on Friday.

More signs about dangerous items will be installed in buses and at bus stops in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, where the blaze happened, said Hu Qinghan, director of Chengdu Municipal Committee of Communication on late Sunday.

The fixed windows on the buses with air-conditioners will be changed to ordinary windows which can be opened, and more safety hammers to brake windows will be installed, Hu said, adding that the doors also will be much more easy to be opened.

The city will buy 1,000 more buses to ease traffic in rush hours, He said.

In the neighboring Chongqing Municipality, employees will be at major bus stops to inspect dangerous items, said the municipal transport company, which examined its 6,500 buses on Saturday,

Beijing began to examine all its 230,000 buses on Sunday, said the Beijing Bus Group.

Each bus had automatic firefighting equipment which would turn on when a fire started, said the company's spokesman.

Drivers and conductors had been trained to deal with emergencies before being authorized to work, the spokesman said.

Fuzhou, Eastern China's Fujian Province, has 2,100 buses, 1,500 of which had installed automatic firefighting devices, which cost Fuzhou Public Transport Company Ltd. more than three million yuan since 2006.

The company, which examined all its buses on Saturday, said it will buy more than 300 buses with the automatic devices within this year.

Drivers inspect their buses everyday before they began to work and each bus has to go to the transport company every 10 days for examinations, said Li Rui, general manager of the company.

Eight percent of the 5,600 buses in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province, have air-conditioners and fixed windows. Electricity devices and engines had been inspected over Sunday night.

The company said it tried to finish the work before Monday's rush hour.

Other provincial capital cities also have inspected all their buses, including Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin Province, Wuhan, capital of central Hubei Province, Xi'an, capital of southwestern Shaanxi Province, and Urumqi, capital of northwestern Xinjiang Autonomous Region.

In Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning Province, all bottled liquid is banned on buses, according to the latest governmental notice released on Saturday afternoon, after an investigation into the fatal bus blaze shows someone had brought gasoline aboard the vehicle, suggesting the inflammable material is to blame for the fire, said Shi Qijin, director of the municipal traffic bureau.

The only line with air-conditioned buses will be canceled and the buses will be installed with new windows, Shi said.

The accident occurred in the morning rush hour Friday, when the No. 9 bus was on its way from Tianhui Township to downtown Chengdu, and caught fire under the Chuanshan Viaduct. A total of 25 people were killed and 76 others were injured Friday. Two injured died in in the Chengdu No. 2 People's Hospital, Sunday, bringing the death toll to 27. A total of 18 of the injured were still in critical condition, said Yang, adding doctors were trying their best to save their lives. A further 54 were in stable conditions, and 11 had been discharged from hospital.