The SAFETY of PASSENGER VEHICLES
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More Ipteresting and Valuable Hints from Competitors in "The Commercial Motor" Competition for Safety Ideas. AN interesting contribution to our competition for ideas which will promote thesafety of passenger vehicles was submitted by H. J. Butler, qf Ealing Common.
As regards the mounting of the
petrol tank, he suggests that the tank (A) should rest on the floor under the back seat, it being surrounded by a steel plate (B) and asbestos (C). The space not occupied by the tank is filled with sand (D), whilst the tank filler. (E) is accessible through a small door (G), Protection against collision being afforded by the bumper (F). We cannot say that we like this idea. We do not agree that a petrol tank should ever rest on the floor. We think that there should be nothing under the tank beyond the supporting brackets. In the event of petrol leakage the petrol would be absorbed by the sand, which would soon be completely impregnated; also, if there were any movement of the sand, sooner or later it might cut its way through the metal or weaken it.
The next suggestion by this correspondent is that of a special type of body with wide doors at A and B, which are repeated on the other side of the vehicle. The cress-wise seats (C and D) would be facing, thus always leaving a clear space s28 in front of the windows (E) which could be used as an emergency exit. A step is provided at F and, if necessary, the backs of seats C and D could be made to fold on to the cushions, so facilitating exit. Each window should be made to drop to its full depth.
Here the extra doors certainly constitute a good safety feature, also the provision of wide windows, but few passengers in motor coaches like to travel with their backs towards the engine, although, curiously enough, this does not apply so much in trains.
The use of asbestos linings for the upholstery of seats in the vicinity of the petrol tank and of woodwork made from fire-resisting timber, such as that treated by the Oxylene process, are also recommended by our correspondent. It is mentioned by H. J. Butler that escape from a vehicle should not be attained by the breaking of glass, but we noted at the Royal Show that one of the buses built for a well-known municipality carried a conveniently placed wood mallet inside the front bulkhead so that passengers could seize this for the purpose of breaking the windows.
He recommends that two fire extinguishers should be carried on every vehicle having more than 10 seats, and that experiments should be conducted by setting fire to old buses and coaches equipped with filled tanks in various positions, with and without protective devices, such experiments being made while artificially produced currents of air could play on the vehicle to reproduce, so far as possible, the draughts set up With the vehicle in motion.
Somewhat unusual is the scheme put forward by R. Jago, of Hurstpierpoint. This is to the effect that the emergency door at the rear should be hinged at the bottom so that it will fall open outward by its own weight so soon as the lock at the top is released. The control suggested is by means of a chain running the full length of the bus at each side and so arranged that it can be operated by any passenger without leaving his seat. It is suggested that the top of the door. should be equipped with small shock absorbers provided with castors, so that if it were ever opened accidentally it would not be damaged by contact with the road. Incidentally, in an emergency, it would form a useful ramp, but this, of course, only if the vehicle remained in an upright position.
The idea certainly has possibilities and might be applied to doors at the side as well as at the rear.
J. B. Skyrme, assistant general manager of the Belfast Omnibus Co., points out that he has had in his mind for a long time the idea that the usual emergency door found on 95 per cent, of the countrysaloon type of vehicle is not as useful as it might he. Most buses of this class, he says, are equipped with an entrance door on the near side, either at the front or rear, whilst sometimes there are two entrance doors.
If something occurs to turn the bus over on its off side, then the entrance doors are available for the exit of passengers, but if the vehicle turns over on its near side (which, incidentally, is usually the case) only the rear emergency door can be relied upon. Now this end door usually has its hinges on the right of the door, looking at the back of the vehicle, and if the vehicle be turned over the door becomes a type of " lid " which must be forced open and upwards from the inside, and a door of this description is usually fairly heavy ; also, each passenger would have to lift the "lid" as he or she got out, unless it were held up by the first person leaving. It is therefore suggested that these doors forming also a small ramp, whilst if the vehicle turned over to the off side the ordinary doors would still be available. • We note with interest regarding this suggestion that in any new vehicles made for this company, experiments will be conducted on these lines.
An emergency brake for forward control buses is the suggestion of R. Coates, of Scarborough. The device would take the form of a hand-brake lever worked from inside the bodY and hinged to lie flat on the floor between the seats when not required for use. It can be arranged with a muff, which would drop over the hinged section when the lever is brought into the upright position; this muff could also be made to act as a pawl to engage a ratchet quadrant and be provided with a loop by which
to release it. The portion of the lever below the fulcrum couldbe provided with a swivel eye-piece carried on the ordinary brake-pull rod and an adjustable stop on this rod would enable the brake to be operated as necessary by the emergency lever, but would not prevent or interfere with the action of the proper brake-control lever.
This Scheme is, we think, of considerable practical value, as where the driver is completely sephrated from the passengers neither they nor the conductor has any means for controlling the vehiele in the event of the driver fainting or falling asleep.