looking at the mangled mess of some part of the bus. seatbelts would not have helped passengers sitting there.
Not really, a professional driver needs to drive responsibly, follow traffic rules and needs to know limits. Driving a huge bus on mountain roads has its limits. I’ve seen a bus’s breaks catch fire on a downward road in the Alps.
This driver has only 1 year experience.
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This incident has made parents at our school have a complete and total flipshit about a trip the kiddos will (were going to?) take next week.
I would love for Taiwan to increase its driver training to German or Japanese level. 100% of the people on the road would lose their licenses (and anyone without them would hopefully be much more adequately fined than they are now) and the streets would be much safer.
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"Inspections of the recalled vehicles would be completed by the April 2-5 Tomb Sweeping Holiday, with buses failing the tests not allowed to resume service."
Just improving the enforcement of existing rules would be an impressive improvement.
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A further 471 tour buses grounded to be checked for safety.
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Don’t they use a tachograph in Taiwan? Then it’s time to get a digital one installed in all commercial vehicles over 3.5 t. ( The tachograph is the device that records driving times and rest periods as well as periods of other work and availability taken by the driver of a heavy vehicle. The purpose of the tachograph is to prevent driver’s fatigue and to guarantee fair competition and road safety.)
( A digital tachograph is a device fitted to a vehicle that digitally records its speed and distance, together with the driver’s activity selected from a choice of modes.) And a black box!
Also, vehicle safety is great but the driving and scheduling also needs to be looked into.
I get the sense bus drivers and other professional drivers (they are often involved in traffic accidents) are paid by trip, and the pay is low enough that they must maximize the number of trips they make in order to make ends meet.
And nothing will change because, cost down is very pervasive in Taiwan. I heard bus drivers, especially long haul drivers are paid 500nt per trip. That means they must make 3 trips per day to make enough. So you now know why they speed through every trip they make.
You are mistaken.
Companies here do NOT care about driver fatigue or safety.
If they are involved in an accident they will quietly fire the driver and make him bear all the responsibilities while they find a replacement.
They are given about as much protection as Uber drivers.
Yup, even the government tried to do that with the TRA when that conductor was told to keep going even though he reported something was wrong with the train in the Puyuma incident. Full speed ahead they said and when it crashed , they said it was all the drivers fault, you’re fired. Never any corporate responsibility.
The conductor knew if he stopped he’d be fired as there is no real worker protections. The poor guy almost had a nervous breakdown from the guilt and corporate only took blame after Taipei and the media came down hard.
You know Taiwan has press freedoms unheard of even in America. They should be exploited to the fullest extent.
The press has the power to make sure companies are responsible for accidents. You know like Food panda always involved in accidents, because they are paid per trip. So people speed to maximize their earnings.
The more we can get the media to expose these things, the more things will change.
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The latest info focused on the testing of the roadworthiness of the tour buses. How could a relatively new vehicle fail? Well, quoting the report, they say the testing in Taiwan is not up to the worldwide standards. Too much computer simulation, not enough real testing. Like they were showing a driver’s seat. No matter how much they screwed it, it tore apart in collisions.
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