Judging from reports of motorway coach crashes in the past, where the coach overturned (eg Heathrow NE crash 2007), serious injury occurs most often where the window glass shatters and passengers not wearing seatbelts are thrown out or dragged along the ground inside the coach. At least on motorway buses passengers are seated and should be wearing seat belts.
There is no such requirement on trams where indeed sitting may not be possible. And on a tram travelling on rail tracks relatively high speeds are achievable. So should they be subject to the same safety code as urban buses or something stringent in particular regarding the windows?
I honestly think the perceived need for "escape glass" and hammers is a red herring. The RSSB did extensive surveys, as reported above, and found the occasions when smashing the glass to escape were needed, were vanishingly few, if at all. By contrast many more fatalities and serious injuries were caused, as at Croydon, by people being thrown out of coaches which overturned and threw people out of the window or dragged them along the ground inside it after it overturned and broke the windows. This is why reinforced windows were introduced.
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Judging from reports of motorway coach crashes in the past, where the coach overturned (eg Heathrow NE crash 2007), serious injury occurs most often where the window glass shatters and passengers not wearing seatbelts are thrown out or dragged along the ground inside the coach. At least on motorway buses passengers are seated and should be wearing seat belts.
There is no such requirement on trams where indeed sitting may not be possible. And on a tram travelling on rail tracks relatively high speeds are available. So should they be subject to the same safety code as urban buses?
I honestly think the perceived need for "escape glass" and hammers is a red herring. The RSSB did extensive surveys, as reported above, and found the occasions when smashing the glass to escape were needed, were vanishingly few, if at all. By contrast many more fatalities and serious injuries were caused, as at Croydon, by people being thrown out of buses or coaches which overturned and threw people out of the window or dragged them along the ground inside it after it overturned and broke the windows.