Bus and coach passenger casualties in non-collision incidents.

Two major bus safety reports have recently been completed at ICE. Firstly the 'Assessment of Passenger Safety in Local Service PSVs', for the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), assesses the impact of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) and the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DIPTAC) regulations on bus travel. Secondly 'Real World Bus and Coach Accident Data from Eight European Countries', for Task 1.1 of the Enhanced Bus and Coach Occupant Safety project (European Commission 5th Framework Project no. 1999-RD.11130), is a collation of European data that identifies the important issues in bus and coach occupant safety. It has become evident during these projects that non-collision incidents are an important part in the injury experience of bus casualties, especially for elderly occupants. By consideration of both national statistics and in-depth cases a picture has been formed of the bus and coach casualty population and the types of incidents in which these people are injured. These statistics have been presented, along with possible reasons for such a high proportion of casualties occurring in non-collision incidents and recommendations have been made that would lessen the risk of these injuries occurring, through better design and operational changes. These injuries occur due to a combination of factors. Occupants can fall due to slipping or tripping on poorly designed floor surfaces or in wet weather conditions. Or falls can occur due to acceleration forces as the bus brakes or pulls away. When these falls occur the design of the interior can present an injury risk. In recent years bus design has changed as a result of new regulations to allow a wider population to use buses, especially with the introduction of low floor access. These features promote easier boarding and alighting and allow less mobile members of the population to make use of bus travel. Unfortunately this may also increase the likelihood of these more vulnerable people receiving injuries on the vehicle. Many of the issues addressed are particularly relevant to elderly people, small children and their carers. (A) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD no 207828. The reprints are also available at the web - http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart1.pdf; http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart2.pdf and http://www.vti.se/pdf/reports/K18APart3.pdf.