《TAIPEI TIMES 焦點》 Buses clog Taipei road as drivers rally

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

Traffic on the streets near the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei was held up for about three hours yesterday morning as hundreds of drivers protested regulations imposed after a deadly tour bus fire last month.

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Members of the New Taipei City Tour Bus Drivers’ Union said 200 buses and 400 drivers were mobilized, with buses stopping on Renai and Hangzhou S roads, paralyzing traffic.

Protesters gathered at the front of the building and demanded that the regulations be relaxed.

About a dozen protesters pushed past barriers at the ministry’s main entrance and entered the lobby.

A few protesters went to the 19th floor, demanding to see Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan （賀陳旦）.

The protest ended after two hours of talks between union representatives and ministry officials.

Union chairman Lee Shih-chia （李式嘉） said it is almost certain that the bus driver killed in the July 19 bus fire was suicidal, but people are focused on the issue of bus operators buying vehicle parts from overseas and having them assembled in Taiwan.

The ministry reinforced that impression by launching a massive crackdown on tour bus operators, Lee said.

Some operators said that the government wants tour buses to pass an excessively high standard of safety, requiring buses to be in use for only a certain number of years.

However, operators cannot get a return on investment if they were to follow the regulations, they said, adding that the government should prevent public bus operators from branching out into the tourism industry.

Transportation Management Center chief secretary Lin Fu-shan （林福山） said the ministry has explained that a tour bus does not equate to an assembled bus.

The union said its members have received 46 tickets since July 23 for failing to follow the new safety requirements.

Lin said 14 of the penalties — fines for not being able to easily open emergency exits — would not be rescinded.

The remaining 34 cases involved locks or other devices on emergency exits, Lin said, adding that drivers need not pay a fine if it could be shown that the devices were factory-installed.

In that case, the manufacturers of the bus’ body would pay the fine instead, he said.

The Directorate-General of Highways said that protesters listed 13 demands.

It promised to hold a meeting within one week to discuss some of them.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES