Air Bag System to Reduce Railway Pedestrian Fatalities

[Anonymous]

There is one central, fundamental question that I have regarding this airbag concept:

 

What is the shortest distance over which an average human body can withstand accelerating from a dead stop to 60 mph?

[jclass]

Bucyrus

There is one central, fundamental question that I have regarding this airbag concept:

 

What is the shortest distance over which an average human body can withstand accelerating from a dead stop to 60 mph?

Well, here's a start.   60mph = 88 feet per second.  Top fuel dragster drivers approach 8G.

They reach 100mph in the first 60 feet.  That's .8 seconds.

http://www.z06vette.com/forums/f8/top-fuel-dragster-facts-108168/

 

 

[mudchicken]

Reminiscent of the GM / FHWA automobile initial seatbelt & airbag studies where the crash test dummies were "only slightly killed".

$10,000 pere locomotive is affordable? To who?Hope he and his likewise thinkers have a big bank account.

Methinks this pie-in-the-sky bubba needs to have a head-on with reality.

[Norm48327]

jclass

Bucyrus

There is one central, fundamental question that I have regarding this airbag concept:

 

What is the shortest distance over which an average human body can withstand accelerating from a dead stop to 60 mph?

Well, here's a start.   60mph = 88 feet per second.  Top fuel dragster drivers approach 8G.

They reach 100mph in the first 60 feet.  That's .8 seconds.

http://www.z06vette.com/forums/f8/top-fuel-dragster-facts-108168/

 

I will forgo the pleasure of being the test dummy.

 

 

 

[edblysard]

I wanna ride, I wanna ride.....

[jeffhergert]

I once watched a documentary about an inventor who was working on a bullet proof vest. (I don't remember if it was the first, or an improvement of exsisting vests.)  To prove that his would work, he allowed himself to be shot while wearing it.

It seems to me that if the inventor(s) of this air bag system think it will work, they would be willing to be the first live test subjects.  

Jeff

[Phoebe Vet]

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIhyETXW1u0

That would be Richard Davis, founder of Second Chance Body Armor.

[henry6]

A quick perusal of these pages devoted to the subject indicates a very narrow vision in that it only pertains to railroads and trains.  The real solution is actually more universal.  Instead of trains being equipped with the air bags, people should be.  Not only will this protect individuals against trains but also cars and each other.  Plus it would descriminate between squirrels and people allowing the train to proceed without having to stop for every bug and critter it encounters.  The insurance companies would be able to promote this by first issueing personal transportation policies, raising the rates, then giving discounts to those who fit themselves with air bags when they take a hike or are just casually walking the dog.  Of course, I just opened another avenue of income: air bags for your pets...American would go wild over that!  Voila I have just tripled the GNP of the U.S.!  And look at how many lives I've saved with these personal (and pet) airbags and the money I've saved railroads by not having to install such bags on each end of each locomotive and cab car. 

[nyc#25]

Air bags on trains is the dumbest idea I've ever heard. Compared to the carnage on highways people being killed by trains is minimal. But, no one gives a *** about highway carnage! How would railroads m.u. engines with all that air-bag garbage on the locos noses?

[zardoz]

henry6

Instead of trains being equipped with the air bags, people should be.  Not only will this protect individuals against trains but also cars and each other. 

And just think of the excitement when two people bump into each other in a crowd.  Both airbags would deploy.  This deployment would then trigger a further deployment of the bag of the people next to the original deployment. Then those bags would further cause the bags of the people next to them to deploy. And so on and on like a nuclear reaction until the space was totally filled with deployed airbags and people trapped beneath, caroming off of each other as further bags deployed. If a critical mass is achieved, the building might explode from the collective force of the airbags. Think of the news and youtube footage!!  Of course, we'll need some good ideas for the headlines....

[The Butler]

Building Collapse due to Population Explosion...

details at 10.

[henry6]

The Butler did it!  Just blew me away!!!

[carnej1]

nyc#25

Air bags on trains is the dumbest idea I've ever heard. Compared to the carnage on highways people being killed by trains is minimal. But, no one gives a *** about highway carnage! How would railroads m.u. engines with all that air-bag garbage on the locos noses?

 

No one cares about highway carnage except when the Feds mandate car safety improvements,your State mandates seatbelt use, etc.etc..

I am not equating this proposal with highway safety standards, it seems to me to be "overkill", that is, if it's practical at all..