Re: European standards
Author: Ernest H. Robl
Date: 01-11-2007 - 11:31
As someone who follows European railroads fairly closely, I have to say that I have never felt unsafe on any of a variety of European equipment, and I've traveled on everything from light rail to engines of high-speed trains over there.
I've had (U.S.) engineers (civil and mechanical, not locomotive drivers) tell me that in some ways the U.S. standards are actually counterproductive. If the car cannot deform on impact, then everything inside simply keeps moving when the car comes to a stop in an impact. And that everything includes the passengers who are then thrown against parts of the car interior at high speed.
In most of the recent major European accidents -- and there have not been that many -- the American crashworthiness standards would have made little difference. For example, the one major German ICE train accident, which was caused by a wheel failure, was vastly complicated by the fact that it took place at the site of an overhead highway bridge. The first derailed car took out the bridge support, collapsing the bridge. The rest of the derailed cars then hit that mass of concrete. Again, the casualties in that situation would probably have been about the same, even with the U.S. standards for rollign stock.
The wheels of all ICE trains were subsequently replaced by a different design and there has not been a major accident of an ICE train since.
On the other hand, many of the problems of the Acela have been caused by heavy weight of the rolling stock.
-- Ernest