BEIJING - China on Wednesday ordered an overhaul of commercial passenger cars, trucks and school buses in the wake of a deadly bus fire in central China that killed more than 40 people onboard.
Huang Ming, vice minister of public security, called for "zero-tolerance" and "zero-malfeasance" with regard to safety loopholes during the overhaul and underlined the importance of strengthened supervision.
A 35-seat double-decker, traveling from the city of Weihai in the eastern Shandong Province to central Hunan's provincial capital Changsha, caught fire at 4 a.m. Friday on the Beijing-Zhuhai Expressway.
Police detained six suspects and blamed inflammable chemicals for the blaze that occurred in Henan Province.
Trucks that carry hazardous materials, commercial passenger cars, trucks and school buses are required to pass a security check before September this year, or will be prohibited from operating, according to the ministry.
The ministry vowed to strengthen regular patrols on expressways and warned any misconduct in management would be severely punished.
Comments: cmknight 35-seat bus with 47 passengers can almost be called normal. I travel by bus quite a bit, and there have been a number of times when the bus will stop before it gets to a toll-gate, and order over-capacity passengers to disembark and meet them by taxi on the other side of the gate ... after the bus has gone through the police seating check. grb (send message) wrote: 3 h ago A 35 seat bus with 47 passengers. 41 burn to death because of stupidity of others and poor control by the officials.
Would be a good idea for China to engage safety consultants from Germany or other parts of the West where safety measures have been developed over a longer period of time.