A look into the bus crash killing 35 people in central China: how to ensure the safety of the passengers

This is a very painful and grievous accident shocking the whole China and the government pays utmost attention to it and already built up a special investigation group to look into this(the possible causes of the accident). At about 10:20am on Jun.26

This is a very painful and grievous accident shocking the whole China and the government pays utmost attention to it and already built up a special investigation group to look into this(the possible causes of the accident).

At about 10:20am on Jun.26 in Yizhang County,Hunan Province of central China, a tour bus with fifty-seven people on board smashed into the guardrail on the highway and burst into flames in 3 minutes.At least 35 people were killed and four seriously injured.



We feel sad from the heart and pray for the dead and wounded in the accident. But at the same time, we really should set to take high concern on the issue like this and to enhance our safety awareness either as a driver or as a passenger. It's really a big deal having immediate relations with us.

A Chinese online reported that only 290 thousand people read this accident report on the Internet. It can be seen from this that the public still do not pay close attention to this and consider it as a chance event with only a one in million rate to happen. Actually it always has reasons to come true if we ignore and show little concern. Let's take a look into this accident and really hope it will give all food for thought. What exactly happened to this bus? Why did it lose control? Why the passengers were kept in the bus and found no way out?These all are problems to be investigated into.

According to the injured survivor, after the coach crashed into the roadside barrier, the driver was the first to escape without opening the door. The trapped passengers were trying to find the safety hammers to break the window but no ones found, which leads to unsuccessful escape of the passengers. The driver has been detained during the investigation. Although the root cause remains unverified or being undisclosed so far, the questions like how to protect the safety of the passengers will be haunting in our minds, which gets us into contemplation.

The security design of the bus is an issue that should be taken seriously. From the occasion, we can see the bus has only a front door and made it very inconvenient for the passengers to get out when encountered with the accident. Also, safety signs should be marked clearly to show people how to run out and open the door by hand as well as the safety equipment like emergency hammers should be put in a very obvious position so the passengers can easily find.

The performance of the driver in this accident was really worrying and chilling. It's another key reason leading to the tragedy. It's heard that the driver had a huge potential in a drowsy and fatigued condition during driving, which contributed to the smash. Driver drowsiness has been one of the most common reasons to cause a traffic accident and remains a hot topic and problem in the transportation fleet management. This accident indicates the transportation company still lacks a good solution in the driver fatigue management.The driver assistance systems that can detect and monitor driver drowsiness and alert the drivers to hazards earlier have come into being for years while still unpopular in China and of not widely use. Some companies may think this technology is expensive to them but from a long term it can help them save cost and avoid loss, even reputation damage. Besides, the drivers personality, professionalism and responsibility are very important qualities in the occupation. Have the drivers got professional security training from the bus company? How to ensure the qualification of the drivers? It's another problem challenging the transportation company as well as relevant traffic departments.

Last, most of citizens are lacking training in how to survive when facing an emergency, which causes people to have low senses of crisis. As above mentioned, only 290 thousand of people on the Internet read about this topic and low concern were shown by the public. Quite contrarily, the safety of every seat on a plane has been carefully studied and can be found on the Internet everywhere. There also should be very apparent instructions to this on the bus, letting people help themselves in different seats. Every one should have this knowledge reserve.