School buses inspected ahead of new semester
Traffic police officers in Shanghai's Pudong New Area started a round of inspections on school buses across the area on Friday – ahead of the new semester that will begin on Wednesday.
They carefully checked the appearance, signs, tires, medicine boxes, fire extinguishers, escape ladders as well as other safety facilities of the buses.
All school buses are equipped with striking "stop" signs to alert other personnel or vehicles.
On Friday morning, over 20 school buses lined up outside the gate of Xiehe Education Shanghai United International School Pudong Campus.
A local traffic police officer, Zhang Bin, boarded each of the buses to check the safety conditions.
"Although the school buses go through inspections every six months, the conditions of the buses are changing," he said.
"So, a thorough check is necessary ahead of each new semester to ensure safety."
A police officer checks the outer condition of a school bus.
Along with the safety inspection, the police officers also talked to drivers and teachers to raise awareness on safe driving.
The school now has about 1,200 students in total, 10 to 20 percent of whom are expats, according to the school's vice president Cai Bei.
"We have more than 30 buses on different routes," she told Shanghai Daily.
More than 500 students take school buses every day.
A police officer checks the safety facilities inside a school bus.
There are about 800 buses registered in Pudong with more than 1,000 drivers, the largest amount citywide.
"All the school buses are registered and under strict management," said Lu Wei, an official with Pudong traffic police.
