Bus crash tests: plenty of room for improvement

Impact tests on trucks and buses are nothing new. Every so often one of these giants has to endure the punishment of crash barriers, whether for Euro NCAP or, as in this case, for the American NHTSA. As with any vehicle subjected to testing, the aim is to verify the level of safety these road giants offer their passengers.

One of the specimens tested by the NHTSA was a Renaissance 2000 MCI 102EL3 bus, equipped with a Series 60 diesel engine from Detroit Diesel and an Allison B500 automatic transmission. The vehicle’s speed at the moment of impact was 48 km/h.

The total weight of this bus is almost 20,000 kilograms, which is no small matter. Clearly, passenger safety must keep improving, but it is also clear that in a collision with a bus of this kind, a smaller vehicle can do very little, however safe and well equipped it may be.

Twenty-two dummies were used as “passengers”, placed at random; some were wearing their seat belts and others were not. What is truly striking is that the driver would probably have come out of this collision with fatal injuries, since everything in front of the front wheels is destroyed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFlGHxV5WsY