Coach frontal impact.

Victor Meldrew · 25-08-09, 10:34 AM

A while ago I posted a video of a coach frontal impact test in the Video Directory (see the panel at the top).

This controlled crash was carried out in America by NITSA the government agency responsible for road safety, a bit like our VOSA. The video was withdrawn for copyright reasons by youtube and is not currently available anywhere that I have found on searching the internet.

It was disturbing to watch since there was little protection for the driver.

Further searching has come up with another coach frontal impact test and I have added the link to the original video posting in the comments section just down the page a little.

This is a recent American tri-axle coach and the resistance to the impact at 30 mph is very poor when looked at from a driver’s point of view. There is NO survival space for the driver and the coach is completely crushed right up to the front row of passenger seats.

Do not watch this video if you are of a nervous disposition.

Here is a direct link to the recent test to save you going to the Video Directory.

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Bus-Crash-Test_182389.htm" target="_blank">http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Bus-Crash-Test_182389.htm

Have a look if you dare before this one is also removed from the internet.

Victor.

Matt · 25-08-09, 11:31 AM

And people wonder why i dont wear my seat belt

If i saw a solid object coming at me like that i would bail...

stevenson · 25-08-09, 11:59 AM

I have had a frontal with a car, which is a different a story. But a solid wall, i.e. the back of a lorry, you can say goodby to you, the courier, and more than likely the first couple of rows of paxs. Scary thought.

classy · 25-08-09, 07:29 PM

You could always drive around in reverse, that way the the back seat get it first

jcjdavis1 · 25-08-09, 08:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt

And people wonder why i dont wear my seat belt

If i saw a solid object coming at me like that i would bail...

Hi. Where to? Jim

Matt · 25-08-09, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jcjdavis1

Hi. Where to? Jim

At least if your out of your seat, you wont get crushed. It would still hurt i know, but you stand a better chance. Thats Matt logic for you

Andy · 26-08-09, 07:48 AM

I had a foreign lorry come at me on a narrow lane a while back, he had a nose in a map, but on this occasion I had a chance stop, release seat belt and leg it to the back, towards a side emergency exit, but he saw me and anchored before any impact.

You don't always get the chance with head on's, it's the part of the job we try to ignore

Seat belts will stop you going through that windscreen, on any other type of collision.

The_NewBoy · 26-08-09, 11:11 AM

if thats 30mph imagine inpact at 62mph!!!

jvz · 31-08-09, 10:34 AM

At one of the stock car meetings I went to last year they had bus and coach banger racing. Banger racing isn't really my thing but it gets the crowds in. The vehicles on the whole were at least twenty years old and I noticed that hits on the cab area were avoided. Hardly surprising when you saw how easily everything beyond the axles collapsed. One of the my colleagues was on travelling to school in the late eighties when their coach was hit by a lorry. Kids at the back were in the road as the body disintegrated around them.

snugbug · 31-08-09, 04:26 PM

so thats why they dont give us an air bag, and as for bailing out well an ejector seat would be better. if you are wearing it though, they know where to find you.

Jonesy93 · 31-08-09, 07:05 PM

Hmmmmmm. I knew there was a reason I hadn't viewed this thread up until now.

Once upon a time the OH used to do shuttles along the M4 for Aerospace. Many times some "helpful" person at work would tell me they'd heard about a big crash on the M4 and was he OK? Was I worried about him?

Until now I never did.

Hope you all have good life insurance - especially if you have young families.

AM

Matt · 31-08-09, 09:03 PM

The Scanias we used to have, my knees were right up against the dash. It the same on the Plaxtons we run also. In fact on the 70 seaters i cant even get my left leg behind the dash. What state my legs and hips would be in even in a low impact is any bodys guess! Hence no seat belt!

stevenson · 31-08-09, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt

It the same on the Plaxtons we run also. In fact on the 70 seaters i cant even get my left leg behind the dash. What state my legs and hips would be in even in a low impact is any bodys guess! Hence no seat belt!

I have sat in a 70 seat plaxton and no seat belt would make a blind bit of difference, it took me about 30 seconds to get out from behind the wheel, just no space at all and I am only 6ft and quite slim. So anyone who is supporting a proad beer gut or is over 6ft I can't see how they could drive it to start with.

Matt · 31-08-09, 09:22 PM

I know what you mean, the seat goes up when you try standing up. That makes it really hard for me to get out as it traps me against the wheel...

It is a frightening thought being involved in a head on isnt it?

Kensington · 01-09-09, 09:37 AM

About 20 years ago, I had a nasty one on the A5 in Staffordshire about 5 miles north of Gailey. Some of you may know there's a few straight stretches along there and on one such section while doing around 50mph, I noticed a line of cars comming the other way. Nothing to worry about I thought... until the leading car was about 300 yards away ans started swerving from side to side as if the driver was 'jerking around' on the steering wheel. Obviously I had eased off by now and had got the brakes covered which was a good thing because the car suddenly left the road and hit something on it's side of the road then as it came back onto the road, it flipped onto it's roof and came straight across into my path! I yelled to the pax 'BRACE YOURSELVES!' and hit everything but a collision was unavoidable.

The car struck underneath the cab and I thought I was going to loose my legs but fortunately the front chassis took the impact although the steering linkage was pushed back wrenching the steering wheel away from me. As for the car, well it ended up spinning on it's roof with the front end completely destroyed. It took around 2 hours to free the female driver and passenger who survived although the driver was seriously hurt. None of my pax were injured although we had to use the rear exit as the front n/s of the coach ened up embedded into the hedge and partly in a ditch which meant the exit at the back was a higher drop than normal! The coach was a Duple 320 body on a mid-engine Bedford chassis.

Not something I would ever like to go through again you would think but a few years later IN THE SAME COACH, I was on a school contract following another coach through some lanes in Staffordshire when he stopped to allow something through. I applied the footbrake and to my horror nothing happened! At the last minute I threw the hand brake on but the N/S wheels were in the verge and although we did slow down, the coach slid into the back of the other! The rear window and boot of the first coach were extensively damaged and my front screen dropped out as the two coaches seperated. A few kids were taken to hospital for shock along with the driver of the first coach... which I thought was a bit strange as it was me who was nearest to the impact. The cause by the way was a due to a seal failure on the brake cylinder control valve.

So this subject is very close to my heart!

stevenson · 01-09-09, 09:51 AM

As said before, I have a frontal, a car (4X4) on the A1 pulled out 40ft in front of me from a standing start when I was doing 55mph. The car was a right off and the coach had abou £3500 worth of the damage, the coach was a buelas with the spare under the front bumper which boar most of the crunch. That put me out of work for nearly 4 months with a screwed shoulder. Needless to say it has made me more careful in my driving style, not that I was careless before, but everything now gets a little more space and time and that happened 5 years ago.

I am sure that we have all had near misses whether by our own stupid driving or others, but for me this is a prime reason why we are professional drivers and should be able to read the road and situations to make anything like this as unavoidable as possible.

This topic by its very nature is one that is very real to all of us. Even though it is a scary thought and one worth keeping inmind when driving. Better to get there 5 minutes late and in one piece than not get there at all.