In the last few weeks, there have been several tragic transport accidents overseas – including train accidents in Spain, Switzerland and Canada. These serve as a reminder that there is always a risk with heavy objects travelling at high speeds. There’s risk whether you’re talking about trains, or cars, or skateboarding rhinoceri. In fact, trains and buses are both safer than cars, in terms of the chance of a fatality per passenger kilometre. Air travel is the safest mode of travel by a massive margin. Anyway, we’ve covered these things before and I don’t want to retread old ground.
When it comes to major, high-profile crashes, there’s not much the typical punter can do to prevent them. But we should all remember to stay aware of our surroundings, whether we’re walking, cycling or driving, and try to minimise the chance that we’ll be involved in accidents.
So stay safe out there, everyone. I’ll give the last word (song?) to an award-winning ad:
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Air travel is safer than rail “by a massive margin” because rail safety stats generally include 3rd party accidents involving level crossings, tresspassers etc, as well as track-workers and yard staff. Excluding these causes – i.e.considering passenger safety only, rail travel looks better by a massive margin. Typically rail passenger casualties are less than 5% of total rail casualties. And it should of course be remembered that level crossing accidents are joint rail/road events caused predominantly by road users, and yet their casualties generally count towards the rail accident toll.
Nice post. I really like that video!
safety is a big issues ……..its been a sad few weeks 🙁 And pasengers are not to blame for any of those ……
Safety has been a big issue…….noted a recent newspaper post saying our new trains should have some sort of speed check\shut off on them
to stop speeding ?
I know that safety of buses and trains was one of my big questions when I went back to work and started commuting with baby ……..
primarily what is the safest way to take little ones on the bus/train (carry or pram etc etc) …I even wrote to
LTSA to ask as I could not find any clear info online …anyway I did get a reply which was basically along the lines of ……”Buses are safer than cars as they
have less accidents and are bigger so come off better in an accident” which is what you are saying above ……….and in cases like recently I don’t think a little
one in a pram or held would have had much of a chance 🙁
Anyway its worth noting we have had a few sad incidences …..I only know of one or two ….A Howick and Eastern Bus that crashed into a tree recently in the gardens
and 3 injured (including 2 school kids) and 1 dead ……I have yet to read or hear what the cause of the accident was ….at the time it was speculated the driver might have been going a little fast but that was not necessarily the case, also the poor gent on the bus into town on the motorway who got hit by the truck tire and also a Gran and her two young grandkids waiting for a bus at a bus stop that got hit by an out of control car (not sure if that counts in the stats ?) . Then theres more historic ones I heard of where kids have been trapped by the back doors …and witnessed one where an older lady got hit in the head by the bus mirror while waiting to alight the bus at the bus stop (again do they count ?).
Does anyone know what sort of safety stats our current fleet of buses in NZ have and what the new trains will have ? Do they get safety rated like cars do ? Is there any stats on what the difference is in having seat belts in buses if they do crash ? My husband was once in a bus crash and all were ok except the lady in the front seat who got thrown over it
Also – always of interest to me …..what about our school buses ? I noted when a local bus company got “discontinued” in part due to aging fleet etc that a large number of those buses turned up as local school buses (one assumes all the ones that still met code) …..Is there a certain standard expected for school buses etc ? Or is that simply WOF ???? Has there every been any studies or dialogues published in NZ on school bus safety standards etc ? I always wondered what NZ do in the way of safety standards for our public transport fleet (I guess that would be train, bus and ferry …….and I assume its probably up to the operator rather than a national standard apart from WOF or equivalent ???)
Also would be very curious to know how much if any safety considerations are decisive in terms of bidding for route contracts too ? Or for train service providers ?