A slightly different version of this study is published in the `Proceedings of the Fifteenth International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles, held Melbourne, Australia, 13-16 May 1996', Volume 2, 1996, p. 1986-1995 (see IRRD 896718). Touring coaches are the safest means of transportation, safer than aircraft, railway, truck and passenger car. Nevertheless, spectacular accidents happen and attract the attention of the general public. Especially when coaches overturn, there are severe injuries and in individual cases even fatalities to be regretted. The paper deals with accident situations of coaches. Collision types with relevant deceleration phases and collision velocities will be deduced from that. The kinematics of dummies, the dummy-loadings, the belt forces to be transferred to the structure as well as the safety potential will be determined by computer simulation (MADYMO 3D). Relevant collision types are the 90 degree rollover, and, to a far lesser extent, the frontal crash. The two-point belt proves to be superior to the conventional three-point belt. (A)
Samenvatting