Poor Safety on Public Buses

[pjcnet]

On coaches in the UK there's strict safety rules about wearing safety belts, here is picture inside an average low cost entry level coach that meets the minimum requirement:

Now on public buses in the UK there's not only no safety belts, but there's very hard metal bars to break your fall and crack your head on in the event of an accident, on top of that people are expected to stand when there's no seats available. Apparently urban buses don't legally require safety belts, but they can still legally drive along fast roads and even the motorway, for instance in Birmingham many public buses drive at quite high speed along the A38(M) Aston Expressway (M stands for Motorway). Here is a picture inside an average UK public bus:

(Some buses have no padding on the metal bars what-so-ever, even on top of the seats!)

This is something I can't get my head around because if a public bus crashes at a fairly high speed everyone would be catapulted like rag dolls and many would hit hard metal bars at high speed, almost certainly causing very serious and also fatal injuries, where exactly the same accident in a coach would be far less critical and may even only leave people shaken up with some suffering minor whiplash injuries.

So safety on public buses is in my opinion severely compromised because they don't see it as feasible and cost effective to have the same safety standards as on coaches, but surely there is a tragedy waiting to happen?

 

[Mr Allen]

Seat belts on Buses? Won't happen, it would cost the Bus companies an absolute fortune to fit every Bus in the Country with them, and the Bus companies are LOSING money at the moment because the world and his dog drives everywhere.

 

[Judge]

Hazard analysis has many facets. The most basic ones often being frequency and severity. Statistically speaking sometimes they correlate with one another, and sometimes they don't.

With so many factors to consider, IMO I can only surmise that such apparent safety considerations are a conclusion statistically predicated mostly on more frequent, yet less severe bodily injuries occurring at slower speeds. Where "worse-case scenarios" are far more likely to occur at slower rather than faster speeds.

And what may make all this seem confusing is that such conditions don't necessarily parallel the frequency and severity concerns of private passenger automobiles. Which are far more likely to be driven at faster speeds and proportionately resulting in more severe cases of bodily injury. Where design and safety factors can take a very different approach.

Safety innovations based on statistical analysis of accidents and casualties don't necessarily parallel what might otherwise be construed as basic common sense.

 

[Progster]

The thing I don't get is why taxi drivers are exempt from wearing a seatbelt. Why shouldn't they seatbelt when they drive, just like everyone else?

 

[Judge]

The thing I don't get is why taxi drivers are exempt from wearing a seatbelt. Why shouldn't they seatbelt when they drive, just like everyone else?

In the UK the rationale is that a seat belt exposes a taxi driver to a much higher degree of criminal assault.

A conclusion likely born out of statistical data regarding crime rather than accidents. And perhaps equally the power of a union in lobbying such concerns with Parliament.

 

[xudo]

There area some buses in my city that have seatbelts on certain seats. Nobody uses them though and it is a very small number of both buses and seats on those buses with them. We catch buses a lot and to be honest, it's never crossed my mind what would happen if a bus were to crash.

 

[Nitro]

 

[Mr Allen]

There area some buses in my city that have seatbelts on certain seats. Nobody uses them though and it is a very small number of both buses and seats on those buses with them. We catch buses a lot and to be honest, it's never crossed my mind what would happen if a bus were to crash.

A few years ago I spent a week down in Gloucester living with my Sister in law's Parents, her Mum and I went on a Bus into the Centre, and on the way back the Bus jerked suddenly and I fell and banged my knee! By rights I should've sued the crap out of the Bus company right as it was their fault.

 

[Judge]

View attachment 42895

No worries. The brakes probably don't work anyways.

In some countries transportation safety and products liability are utterly foreign concepts.

 

[Mr Allen]

No worries. The brakes probably don't work anyways.

In that case the Bus should never have left the Depot on safety grounds IMHO.

 

[Judge]

In that case the Bus should never have left the Depot on safety grounds IMHO.

I was being facetious about that with Nitro. In jurisdictions which allow people to actually ride atop a railway car let alone outside of them, it's reasonable to assume that such societies don't seriously care about safety concerns in general. Or perhaps even products liability. Issues reflecting patterns in certain parts of the world.

Unless of course they are owned by foreign entities whose own societies are very concerned about such things. Then suddenly they care a great deal about safety. And even more so, liability.

 

[Bro'Freak]

That's a good point you've made there pjcnet, in the rural area in which I live the bus will cruse along at say 55mph. This as you've rightly pointed out raises some pertinent questions about safety for the passengers considering that the rules are there for harnesses but aren't always enforced, which might be due to admin issues dealing with the Bus pool having some buses with belts & some without. I have wondered many a time how bad a crash would be considering all the metal edges within the passenger area.

 

[Judge]

I have wondered many a time how bad a crash would be considering all the metal edges within the passenger area.

Indeed- "how many a time"? But there's your answer as well. Based on actual losses rather than theoretical concerns of worse-case-scenarios, which granted are always a distinct possibility.

It's the actual bodily injury and property damage losses that statistically determine such safety protocols. If such conditions were predicated only on theoretical losses, insurers would bankrupt us all. Catastrophic bus accidents are usually big news. But the reality is that they don't happen all that often.

I suppose theoretically it might come down to the suddenness of an impact at high speed, and whether or not riders standing could quickly grasp all those bars, as opposed to simply hitting them with their heads and limbs, which could certainly cause a lot of severe bodily injuries in a single occurrence.

Conversely at slower velocities such a design would be intended for riders to grab those bars, and likely spare them from further injury from being thrown around inside or hurled outside the vehicle. Which could well explain this design in particular.

 

[tducey]

I agree, I've often, at the very least, why they aren't on school buses.

 

[vangelis]

It just wouldn't be practical on a local service bus in the UK to for the driver to ensure everyone was belted up before they left each stop. Some people also choose to stand rather than sit next to a stranger - can you imagine the driver having arguments at every stop with people who don't want to sit down? I think it's probably one of those situations where statistically you are more likely to be kicked to death by a donkey than die in a bus crash.

 

[xudo]

Some people also choose to stand rather than sit next to a stranger - can you imagine the driver having arguments at every stop with people who don't want to sit down?

This is such a typically British problem. "I would actually rather be thrown through the windscreen of a bus during a crash, than sit next to someone I dont know."

 

[Judge]

This is such a typically British problem. "I would actually rather be thrown through the windscreen of a bus during a crash, than sit next to someone I dont know."

With one car for every two people in Britain, I can see how people would have such contempt for public transportation. Though you sound more American in the process.

Public transportation locally here barely makes an impact. Though in other places it's taken more seriously. But either way, you can't get around having to rub elbows with total strangers.

 

[Rayner]

In Texas and a few other states, Seat belts are required by law. Now most schools buses in the US have seatbelts anyway. They have them put into the bus as standard equipment anyhow from the manufacturers.

I agree, I've often, at the very least, why they aren't on school buses.

 

[xudo]

With one car for every two people in Britain, I can see how people would have such contempt for public transportation. Though you sound more American in the process.

Public transportation locally here barely makes an impact. Though in other places it's taken more seriously. But either way, you can't get around having to rub elbows with total strangers.

I think even if we didn't have so many cars, we would still have that contempt. It's not even for the public transport really, but just for the public It fills the British with dread when a foreign tourist attempts to make idle chit chat on a train or a bus. We try our very best to avoid even eye contact with a stranger on public transport. Although I draw the line at the people who sit on the outside seat on the bus with an empty seat on the inside so that nobody can sit next to them.

 

[Judge]

I think even if we didn't have so many cars, we would still have that contempt. It's not even for the public transport really, but just for the public It fills the British with dread when a foreign tourist attempts to make idle chit chat on a train or a bus. We try our very best to avoid even eye contact with a stranger on public transport. Although I draw the line at the people who sit on the outside seat on the bus with an empty seat on the inside so that nobody can sit next to them.

I'm not any different. I took public transportation for ten years to commute to work. Where I methodically pretended to be asleep just to get away from it all the best I could. Assuming of course I got a seat. Other times I had to make the 60 minute trip standing. Ugh.