The Taipei City Government ignored the rights of bus passengers and continued to give all 12 bus companies in Taipei good scores in annual reviews despite increasing accident rates, a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City councilor said yesterday.
The accident rate for buses in Taipei increased from 1.45 percent in 2008 to 2.8 percent last year, with more than 300 casualties since 2007. Accident rates for major bus companies that were rated as “excellent” performers, including Metropolitan and Capital Co, were also high, DPP Taipei City Councilor Hung Chien-yi (洪健益) said.
Hung criticized the city government for adopting what he said were low standards in handing out fines to bus companies. According to regulations, bus companies will be fined NT$30,000 and the bus’ license plate will be suspended if a bus causes an incident that causes 10 casualties or three deaths.
“In other words, the bus companies will not be punished if a bus kills two people. The lives of Taipei residents mean nothing to the city government,” Hung said at Taipei City Hall.
The city’s Department of Transportation conducts reviews of bus companies’ performance each year. Companies that score less than 82 are ordered to drop their major routes.
Hung said no bus company had been graded below 82 since 2008 and called on Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) and the department to tighten its examination mechanism against dangerous driving and poor management of bus companies to ensure public safety.
“Despite growing accident rates and complaints about services, not a single bus company received a bad score. The examination mechanism obviously doesn’t work and the city government should come up with a better one,” he said.
Luo Shiaw-shyan (羅孝賢), commissioner of the department, said the quality of bus services had risen over the past 10 years, while acknowledging that the accident rate had increased in the past year.
Luo said the rate was one of the standards used for the annual examination and that the department would raise the weight of accident rates in its annual review by increasing its share of the total score from 9 percent to 12 percent.
As to individual bus drivers who were complained about, Luo said the department would hold occasional training sessions to improve their performance.
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