Shanghai transportation authorities will upgrade the cameras and global positioning systems (GPS) on the city's long-distance and tour buses, in an effort to reduce the number of bus-related traffic accidents, local media reported.
The upgrades will help authorities locate buses as soon as possible after accidents occur, said Huang Xiaoyong, press officer for the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority.
The upgrades will add video capability to the cameras and add sophisticated alarm systems to the buses, including an alarm that sounds when the bus is traveling too fast, according to a report in the Oriental Morning Post on Saturday. Most buses are already equipped with cameras, but they are only capable of taking still photographs every few seconds.
"The videos can provide information about what was happening at the time of an accident," Huang told the Global Times Sunday.
An insider at a long-distance bus company told the Oriental Morning Post that the new GPS system will allow people monitoring the buses to view the routes that buses have traveled as well as their speed in real time.
In addition, the video cameras will allow them to see the state of the driver and the condition of the passengers, such as whether the bus is overloaded.
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