Taxis and tourist buses are causing more traffic accidents
Traffic accidents and injuries caused by taxis and long-distance tourist buses increased in the first half of this year, the city’s traffic police said on Wednesday.
Forty-five traffic accidents involved local taxis, a 7 percent increase on the first half of last year. Police said the accidents, which caused 24 deaths and 31 injuries, were the fault of the taxis. In the same period last year the figures were 18 deaths and 18 injuries.
Most of the accidents happened in districts with suburban areas, with 14 in Pudong, and more accidents took place from 3am to 5am and 9pm to 10pm.
Speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol, running a red light, using a wrong lane and not properly giving way to other vehicles were among the most frequent causes of the traffic accidents, according to police statistics.
Qiangsheng and Haibo were cited as the companies whose drivers caused most accidents, seven and four respectively.
Local long-distance tourist buses were blamed for nine traffic accidents, causing seven deaths and five injuries, in the first half of this year. All the accidents took place in suburban areas, police said. In the first half of 2016, there were six accidents, three deaths and four deaths.
The most frequent cause of the bus accidents were not giving way to other vehicles, according to the police.
Meanwhile, the number of accidents, deaths and injuries caused by public buses in the city dropped 2.4, 17.9 and 5.4 percent respectively.
In 41 accidents caused by public buses, there were 23 deaths and 35 injuries, and 34 accidents happened in suburban areas, police said.
The most frequent causes of bus accidents were not properly giving way to other vehicles, improper operation, speeding and running red lights.
Police said they discovered 6,843 traffic offenses by public bus drivers in the first half of this year.
