Following a series of accidents, the Directorate-General of Highways (DGH) said it is scheduled to publish new regulations governing the management of tour buses by the end of next month.
An accident involving a tour bus in Smangus Village, Hsinchu County, last year caused the directorate to survey roads in mountainous areas and to ban large tour buses from some.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said some tour bus operators had simply changed their vehicle’s specifications to bypass the restrictions.
The directorate has divided large passenger buses into four categories. Buses in category A have wheelbases exceeding 4m, whereas those in categories B, C and D have wheelbases of less than 4m and weigh more than 4.5 tonnes, between 3.5 tonnes and 4.5 tonnes and less than 3.5 tonnes respectively. Vehicles in category A are banned from some of the nation’s mountain highways.
Lee said that a serious violation recently occurred involving a category A tour bus carrying 26 tourists to Aowanda National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County.
To enable it to drive on a mountain highway, the bus company simply shortened the vehicle’s wheelbase to less than 4m, he said.
According to Lee, the bus driver was unable to drive up a steep slope, causing the bus to go into reverse. The driver had to slam on the brakes to prevent the vehicle from tumbling down a roadside slope, he said.
Lee added that the driver then asked the passengers to take their luggage and leave the bus as he tried to drive up the slope again, but to no avail. The tour group eventually boarded a food truck to get to their hotel.
Lee noted that this was not an isolated case, adding that many tour bus operators are exploiting loopholes. He said that legislators have suggested that tour buses take various safety tests, but the Ministry of Transportation and Communications seems uninterested.
In response, Yeh said he was “very shocked” to hear about the case in Nantou County and promised to address the issue.
KMT Legislator Luo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said that the medium-sized tour bus involved in the accident in Smangus last year was inspected by a company that no longer exists. However, many tour bus operators had previously entrusted the company with the task of vehicle inspection.
She accused of the DGH of attempting to allow the company to escape fulfilling its responsibilities.
Luo added that a private school in New Taipei City currently has nine medium-size tour buses of the same model as the one used in the Smangus accident.
DGH Deputy Director-General Mile Chen (陳茂南) said the company that inspected the bus involved in the Smangus accident would not be able to shirk its responsibilities, adding that the results of its inspections would have to be confirmed by the government’s vehicle registration offices.
Both the company and the Vehicle Safety Certification Center would be held accountable if any vehicle inspected is involved in an accident, he said
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS