Shanghai Daily | 上海日报 -- English Window to China News

A SHANGHAI transit bus company that runs more than 400 buses are refitting emergency exit handles to help passengers escape more easily in the event of an accident.

The Xinan Branch of Shanghai Dazhong Bus Company yesterday said they had begun to make the manual override handles more accessible to passengers.

Xinan is one of the local operators of the city's 18,000 commuter buses which service 10,000 routes. The company wants to make buses safer in the wake of the No.842 bus blast on May 5. The mishap left three dead and 12 others injured. A carry-on can of gasoline was the cause of the blast.

Zhang Zuoping, an official with the bus company's Caoxi fleet, said the emergency handles would allow doors to be easily opened.

"Drivers cannot open the doors by operating the control panel when the power system breaks down," Zhang said. "These back-up handles only need to be pulled off to open the doors."

Circuit breakdowns and faulty fuel systems are the frequent causes of buses that catch fire.

"It would only take a couple of seconds for the doors to open once the handles are triggered," he said.

After the bus blast, city bus companies are also installing hammers that can be used as an escape tool to break the windows.

The amendment campaign is proceeding slowly, however, and safety hammers are still absent from many city public buses running the downtown routes. A standard escape hammer produced by the bus producers is made from stainless steel and it costs about 10 yuan (US$1.4) to 20 yuan to install for each bus.