Validation of Measures to Improve Vehicle Safety in Railway Collisions

A series of dynamic collision tests have been carried out to validate proposals for new vehicle structural specifications. Accident statistics indicate most passenger and crew fatalities occur in end-on collisions between trains, almost all of the casualties located in the impacting vehicles. The fatality rate increases substantially if vehicle overriding occurs. The tests had the principal alms of demonstrating that vehicle collapse could be distributed along a train rather than allowing it to be concentrated at the impact point with resultant fatalities and that overriding could be prevented. This paper details the design of vehicle to meet these requirements and goes on to describe the tests undertaken. The tests were extremely successful in validating current concepts of energy absorption and should help to significantly improve vehicle safety.