Research: SAFETRAM

Passive safety of tramways for Europe

Overview

This is a 3 year project funded under the EU FP5 Program consisting of 13 partners from the EU.

Start date: July 2001
End Date: October 2004.

Objectives

Tramway is an increasing accepted mode of urban passenger transport. Present levels of active safety are being achieved mainly through active systems such as signalling and high performance braking systems. However, accidents involving tramways continue to occur, which result in injuries to drivers, passengers, pedestrians and road vehicle occupants. SAFETRAM addresses precisely the problem of tramway passive safety, which includes all structural and interior design rules that contribute to a safe environment for occupants during crash events. Passive safety has been applied currently and successfully in the automotive industry and, more recently, it is being implemented in trains. Addressing an entirely new European problem, Safe tram proposes to develop the correspondent rules for tramways, a passenger guided transport system operating in a complex environment of mixed traffic.

Our Role

MIRA contributed to 2 of the project’s work packages. In the first, existing safety standards and regulations from the automotive field were reviewed for their possible application to trams. This was a challenging task, because of the complex range of occupant kinematics that are possible in the open layouts typical of trams, and because few automotive standards address the needs of unrestrained seated or standing occupants.

In the second work package, MIRA conducted a wide range of numerical simulations and dynamic sled tests to investigate the kinematics of humans and human surrogates (crash test dummies) under braking and collision conditions typical of trams. As part of this work, MIRA also conducted volunteer trials to study the reactions of standing occupants to sudden braking.

Contact:

Keith Clemo

Email: keith.clemo@mira.co.uk

Tel: +44 (0)24 7635 5528
Fax: +44 (0)24 7635 8528