LOCAL governments across the country are exploring stricter measures to protect drivers and harsher punishment toward ill-behaved passengers, after a woman attacked a bus driver before the bus plunged into the Yangtze River in Chongqing Municipality, killing 15 people.

Surveillance video showing the woman, who had missed her stop, hitting the bus driver with her mobile phone has caused outrage on China’s social media. The driver fought back and lost control of his bus which then ploughed through the guardrail and plunged into the river below.

After the tragic incident, many cities are in the process of upgrading buses to protect drivers from passenger interference.

Nanjing, capital of East China’s Jiangsu Province, promises to install doors that separate the driver from the passengers on some 8,000 buses by 2019, People’s Daily reported.

Wuhan of Central China’s Hubei Province will replace 6,100 older buses with new models equipped with protective doors by 2025, local newspaper Wuhan Evening News reported.

Some places have already started to take stricter legal measures against passengers who misbehave.

Many furious netizens suggested that traffic laws should allow other passengers to restrain ill-behaved passengers and keep them away from the driver. A young man who did so in Central China’s Hunan Province was applauded online following the Chongqing incident.

Some net users said guards should be employed to protect bus drivers. Beijing, as a pioneer, has security staff on all its buses to ensure driver safety, Shanghai Observer reported Saturday.

(Global Times)