Symposium explores ways to make school buses safer

China should encourage technological innovation and use technology to make school buses safer, said participants in a symposium held on Friday in Beijing.

The conference, sponsored in part by the International Cooperation Center of the National Development and Reform Commission, took place on China's annual Children's Day and was meant to show corporate awareness of the importance of school bus safety.

That issue began to draw much media attention lately after several recent large accidents involved school buses.

"The State has promulgated a set of regulations this year to ensure school buses are safe, but more should be done to make these measures and regulations are carried out to the letter," said Huo Enquan, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission's international cooperation center.

"Manufacturers and research institutes in the auto industry should be encouraged to learn from the overseas experiences and develop China's own technology, which could make buses more safe than ever."

He said the "the industry has a responsibility to ensure that the vehicles on the market that are designated to be used as school buses have no safety flaws".

A new type of anti-collision device for automobiles, which was invented by the Beijing Automobile Automatic Anti-Collision Device Manufacturing Co, was given a demonstration at the conference, drawing wide interest. Liu Taiyuan, general manager of the company, said, "The new product has been a result of more than 20 year's research and experiments. It is one hundred percent Chinese made and greatly improves automobile safety."

Experts at the symposium pointed out that safety is likely to become buyers' overwhelming concern, especially schools that operate school buses for students. Anti-collision devices are likely to sell well in the Chinese market. That, in turn, will help to make all vehicles safer on the road.