Tom Anderson wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jul 2009, Mr Thant wrote:

On 29 July, 20:03, Tom Anderson wrote:
How is this double-decker-specific?

"In September 2008, a tram and a bus collided at a complex road
junction (see Figure 1). The tram was derailed by its front bogie and
the bus suffered extensive structural damage to its front offside
corner and driver?s compartment. A member of the public travelling at
the front of the upper deck of the bus was thrown out of a side window
and received fatal injuries."

http://www.raib.gov.uk/cms_resources...v2_01-2009.pdf

I don't think it's unreasonable to think the height of the fall may
have been a factor in the person's death.

Quite true - i'd been focused on the the fact that the accident
happened, which i think would have ben neither more nor less likely if
it had been a bendy, and had missed the details of how the chap died.

Must have been a hell of an impact to throw someone *through* a bus
window. Ouch.

tom


Yes - obviously DDs can also get rammed under low bridges, although
obviously not in normal operation. Like I said, there are
design-specific accident modes for bendies and rigids (and Routemasters,
lest we forget), but the propaganda around bendies has deliberately
failed to make this clear, with obvious consequences for common sense.

I did some analysis of death rates over time based on TfL figures going
back to the 1980s, and it rapidly became clear that something happening
in the early 1980s cut the number of deaths in bus accidents quite
sharply. This was either falling bus use or phasing out Routemasters, I
hypothesise.

On the other hand, the dramatic fall in pedestrian road casualties over
recent years started before Livingstone became Mayor, and I'd love to
know what caused it - I think the Major government introduced changes
that led to traffic calming in residential areas, which might have done
it, or possible falling traffic speeds and better brakes might have
helped, or perhaps it's kids not playing in the street as much, although
they certainly do round here. Needs some rigorous research really.

Tom