Poor Safety on Public Buses

[Ste11aeres]

A few years ago I spent a week down in Gloucester living with my Sister in law's Parents, her Mum and I went on a Bus into the Centre, and on the way back the Bus jerked suddenly and I fell and banged my knee! By rights I should've sued the crap out of the Bus company right as it was their fault.

You can only sue for an amount in proportion to the degree that you were actually harmed. In the case of physical harm, you would have to produce records showing that you needed (and got) medical treatment. Was your knee damaged?

 

[Nitro]

I used to ride these rattle-trap tin cans that were run all over Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania USA.
The Port Authority Transit owned and operated them pretty late in the game and the rail system is still in use as Pittsburgh Light Rail to the south hills in Library Pa. where I used to get on the oldschool trolleys. Library is about seven miles from where I was raised.

This image was captured around 1969 on Sixth Street near Mellon Square downtown Pittsburgh at the earliest,evident from the '69 Chevelle to the left of the trolley.

The electrical power was supplied to them by the trolley pole with a ground path provided thru the tracks it rode on.
The poles arced and sparked at any poor connection and provided a small fireworks show at night.

They rode very rough and bounced you from side to side,providing quite a thrill for those who had to stand when they rode.

They were generally pretty filthy from all of the pollution from the steel making industry nearby and spending most of their existence outdoors.

Were they safe? Not seriously,and they made driving on streets with the tracks embedded in them quite a challenge too.It's what we had,so it's what we rode.

I lived after riding them,so I just chalk it up to yet another experience that enriched my existence.

Kind of like riding on the package shelf of the '56 Mercury the day I got flung off it and opened my forehead up on a two gallon steel oil can that was placed on the rear floor to satisfy the oil thirst that the old 312 cubic inch Thunderbird engine had.
I still have a slight scar from the cut that required several stitches to patch it up

 

[Judge]

LOL...It suddenly dawned on me how many times I've ridden the cable cars in San Francisco.

Safety? I suppose that's in the eye of the beholder. In the meantime, try not to get run over as either a passenger getting on or off, or a pedestrian.

In that respect I don't think anything has changed over the years.

But then I think of one of my cousins who used to get his kicks hitching rides on freight trains. Not the safest way to go from one place to another!

 

[pjcnet]

View attachment 42900

I used to ride these rattle-trap tin cans that were run all over Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania USA.
The Port Authority Transit owned and operated them pretty late in the game and the rail system is still in use as Pittsburgh Light Rail to the south hills in Library Pa. where I used to get on the oldschool trolleys. Library is about seven miles from where I was raised.

This image was captured around 1969 on Sixth Street near Mellon Square downtown Pittsburgh at the earliest,evident from the '69 Chevelle to the left of the trolley.

The electrical power was supplied to them by the trolley pole with a ground path provided thru the tracks it rode on.
The poles arced and sparked at any poor connection and provided a small fireworks show at night.

They rode very rough and bounced you from side to side,providing quite a thrill for those who had to stand when they rode.

They were generally pretty filthy from all of the pollution from the steel making industry nearby and spending most of their existence outdoors.

Were they safe? Not seriously,and they made driving on streets with the tracks embedded in them quite a challenge too.It's what we had,so it's what we rode.

I lived after riding them,so I just chalk it up to yet another experience that enriched my existence.

Kind of like riding on the package shelf of the '56 Mercury the day I got flung off it and opened my forehead up on a two gallon steel oil can that was placed on the rear floor to satisfy the oil thirst that the old 312 cubic inch Thunderbird engine had.
I still have a slight scar from the cut that required several stitches to patch it up

And despite phasing out trams over half a century ago in the UK, apart from in the holiday resort of Blackpool where they still run historic trams as a tourist attraction, for some very strange reason they've more recently decided it's the in thing again. For instance a brand new "modern" tram line opened from Birmingham to Wolverhampton called the Midland Metro in 1999, but they've recently spent ridiculous amounts of money extending it through Birmingham City Centre itself and are extending it even further with even more extensions planned. They've also quite recently upgraded the trams themselves.

What the Midland Metro trams used to look like from when the line was first opened in 1999 until 2015. The tram is in 2 halves and has a central pivot that allows it to be longer while being able to bend and manoeuvre around corners.

What the Midland Metro trams looks like now at the time of writing, a lot more snazzy and modern.

Trams don't have safety belts either, but they're slower than trains and I suppose the risk of an accident that causes serious injury to the passengers inside it is quite low with modern trams like this and you get a much smoother ride than in a bus.

 

[Suzanne]

Wow, such a good point and so true.

I often thought when I used a bus, that it was so easy to have an accident.

I was on a coach once, similar to the first picture and I was shocked to see that as far as I could see, no one had seat belts on and that was despite the driver announcing to "belt up" please.

No wonder, when one hears of coach crashes and most are killed; probably have not bothered to wear a seat belt.

Sad and nasty, to think that health is not enough for government to reach in the "pocket" and make things safer, but in truth, if you do not get people complying with the laws, then.....

I hate seat belts, but I see what their purpose is and thus, rather the discomfort, over death quite frankly.

 

[Judge]

Seat belts in mass transit vehicles remain a contentious matter among those assigned to assess all the safety issues. In as much as they protect one in sudden and unintended forward motion, in certain situations passengers may become disoriented to a point where they are unable to release their own seat belts. Such as a sudden overturn or even in cases where the bus may flip upside-down. Worse if the interior suddenly fills with smoke and/or fire.

It's the sort of safety consideration that keeps seat belts from being uniformly adopted in all mass transit vehicles. Sometimes you'll see them militantly adopted, other times not so much.

A somewhat different circumstance, but only yesterday all the passengers of a helicopter died when it had a malfunction and plunged into the East River in New York City. Only the pilot survived, the one person who was able to properly release his seat harness under the duress of quickly being submerged into icy cold water.

They smiled for an Instagram video just before a helicopter tour. Minutes later, a deadly crash.

There's a classic scene in the film "An Officer and a Gentleman" where this dynamic is demonstrated in a "live exercise" at a Naval Flight School. Where they emphasize how easily some can become disoriented hitting the water at speed and suddenly being placed upside-down. The scene where one recruit nearly drowns when all he needed to do was flip a switch to a seat harness. But he couldn't do it.

 

[Aspergers_Aspie]

Some classic cars in the UK anyway, I don't know about other countries have poor safety.
'If your vehicle is over a certain age, it may have never been fitted with seat belts and that’s OK. You will have no problems findingclassic car insurance with Brentacre but regular companies may query why there are no seat belts.'

Seat Belts and Their Laws | Classic Car Law & Regulations

There’s currently no law stating that you need to have them fitted.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

That's how it is everywhere that I know of, in every country. No seat belts on busses. Although I have ridden busses in small towns, and the little busses (the size of a small R.V.) require you to wear a seat belt. But the larger, big city busses are so big and powerful that in an accident, you shouldn't get very hurt. Hence, why you can stand up and don't need a seat belt.