Taxi touch screens take another hit

A taxi passenger remained in a coma for a second day Thursday following a crash Tuesday night that left her with injuries her boyfriend has blamed on the taxi's video touch screen, local media reported.

The passenger, Lü Hang, 24, was riding in the back seat of a taxi around 2 am when the driver dozed off and crashed the car into a guardrail on Inner Ring Road in Yangpu district, the Oriental Morning Post reported.

The force of the crash threw Lü's head into the touch screen installed behind the front passenger seat, said Lü's boyfriend in a microblog post. The boyfriend, who did not reveal his name, said Lü suffered fractures around her eyes and to her nose from the impact.

The boyfriend was not in the taxi at the time of the crash, according to the Oriental Morning Post.

Lü was in critical condition Thursday at Xinhua Hospital, and the accident has left major parts of her face deformed, a doctor surnamed Li told the Shanghai Evening Post.

A doctor named Li Shiting told Shanghai Television Station Thursday that Lü's injuries will leave her vision impaired, though she won't necessarily end up blind.

Shanghai Dazhong Taxi Co, which operated the taxi, had spent 80,000 yuan ($12,871) as of Wednesday to cover Lü's medical bills, the Oriental Morning Post reported.

Lü's boyfriend said she would not have suffered such serious injuries if there hadn't been a touch screen in the taxi, according to the microblog post.

The screen belonged to Touch Media Co, which has installed touch screens in 20,000 taxis in the city, according to a company press officer who refused to be named. There are approximately 50,000 taxis operating in the city.

In October, a taxi passenger died after his head slammed into a Touch Media screen during a traffic accident. Police determined that the company did not bear any responsibility for the man's death, the press officer said Thursday.

The company stated in an e-mail response to the Global Times that all of its screens comply with national standards for vehicle headrests. It said it was still waiting for the results of the police investigation into the accident and pointed out that the screen was not damaged in the crash.

Shen Weimin, vice director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision, said at a press conference in December that there are no official quality standards for touch screens installed in taxis.

Shen said that passing official test doesn't prove that the touch screens are safe.

The Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority vowed to carry out safety inspection on taxi touch screens.

Huang Xiaoyong, a press officer for the Shanghai Municipal Transport and Port Authority, reminded passengers on his microblog Thursday to wear safety belts.

Chi Liming, a member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Committee, proposed at this year's two sessions meetings that all of the touch screens should be removed from taxis.

"You cannot just tell taxi passengers to buckle up and then hang a knife in front of them. There are safety problems with the video screens. Lives are being put in danger because companies do not want to lose the profit from this business," Chi told the Global Times.

Taxi companies and transportation authorities should recognize that it is common for backseat taxi passengers not to wear safety belts, Chi said.