I've made it a few pages into the August Trains, and one thing in Don Phillips' article started me thinking. In the wake of the recent Amtrak derailment, he was asked by one interviewer whether passenger trains should have seat belts, and Don dismissed it out of hand as a ridiculous idea. Why is that? Besides under-utilization, cost, and lack of enforcement, why is this such a ridiculous idea? In those exceedingly rare moments when a passenger car is involved in a wreck at speed and goes on its side, it sounds like being held in your seat would be greatly helpful, if you chose to put your belt on. So why not?
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Here is an article that describes the tradeoffs of seat belts on trains:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/18/us/amtrak-crash-raises-question-of-seatbelts-on-trains.html?_r=0
It is also commonly asked why seat belts should not be included on school buses.
Well, that's discussion over. Thanks for the link to a perfect article
You might make a case that the luggage should be restrained.
The one thing th NYT article fails to mention is that seat belts work by stretching - reducing the deceleration rate below that of the vehicle itself.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
To the same effect as the NYT article - but a lot more directly stated - see this column, about 1/4 of the way down (6th para. &ff.):
http://ten90solutions.com/things_that_make_me_go_hmmmh
And this one, about halfway down:
http://ten90solutions.com/ask_many________questions_get_many________answers
- Paul North.
If anything, you'd want all your seats facing backwards to the direction of travel. Air Force (I think it was USAF) research determined that's the best way to be facing in a collision because your mass is pressing against the seat, not folding you in half over a lap belt or smashing you into the back of someone else's seat. The passenger seats in C-5 Galaxies face backwards for crash survivability.
The NYT piece didn't really mention something airlines have discovered: seatbelts eat into evacuation time. There's no shortage of people that have died in survivable accidents on planes because they couldn't get out of the seat fast enough. Granted, trains don't usually face the same "get out RIGHT NOW" that an airliner has, its something to consider.
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