MoT asked: Look bus door designs into safe
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THE READING road safety committee is to urge the Ministry of Transport to look into bus door designs. The committee decided at a recent meeting to forward details of door designs and figures of boarding and alighting accidents on Reading Corporation Transport buses.
A resolution, on the lines that the Ministry should ensure that all new buses be provided with the safety factors developed in Reading, will be sent by the town clerk. The committee will also send the same details to the Federation of Road Safety Committees in an effort to get wide support for its resolution.
The committee had earlier seen a demonstration by Mr. W. J. Evans, the former Reading Corporation transport manager, which showed that, with 5fin. of rubber between doors as fitted to all Reading's buses, passengers could not be trapped. New one-man buses to be introduced in January would be easier to board and leave, reported Mr. Evans. The floor on these vehicles (Bristol RELL single-deckers with Strachan bodies) will be nearer the ground and the bottom step the minimum possible height from the ground.
Mr. Evans stated that in 1948, the year before doors were introduced, there were 82 boarding and alighting accidents on Reading buses. In the past year there were only three such accidents.
MINI-COACH SHOW
MINI-COACHES will receive maximum attention at Williams Motor Co., Manchester, from December 31 to January 14. Between these dates their Deansgate showroom will be the home of a Mini-Coach Show.
Included in the display will be the Deansgate Touring Coach and a Deansgate bus, both on Transit chassis; a Martin Walter Dormobile on a short wheel base Transit; a Commer Fineline and a Commer Maidstone, both on Commer chassis and a BMC J.U.250 coach by B MC.
Williams', who claim to be the largest retailers of mini-coaches in the country, are expecting to attract visitors from all parts of the United Kingdom.