Abstract
Keywords
Passive safety, driver, survival space, bus, coach.
Abstract
Most of the actual regulations and standards about passive safety in buses and coaches have been established to fix the minimum requirements that must be demanded to the vehicle to improve the passengers safety. Though the requirements related to the drivers safety are scarce. The risk that presents the drivers workplace in specific kind of accidents, as frontal impacts, is quite higher than the passengers risk. Moreover, the fact that the driver remains protected is determinant to maintain the control of the vehicle in manoeuvrings after the initial accident and to speed up the evacuation when it is needed.
Hence it would be desirable that the drivers workplace presents certain level on passive safety, at least the same as the passengers one, whatever would redound in benefits for all.
Having been consulted the bibliography related, there are only a few inputs about the topic indicated above. The INSIA has been studying traffic accidents with implication of coaches since 1985 and has contributed to the creation, adaptation to the technical progress and implementation of the standards related to coaches.
Since the year 2000 until now, the INSIA is developing a research line related to the improvement of the drivers workplace. In this paper both the accidentological situation of coaches in relation to the drivers place and the technological advances that we think that could be gradually being incorporated in the vehicles are presented.