Fire safety of high-capacity buses design

Abstract

Fire safety issues of vehicles indicate the need for joint efforts of experts in the field of transport safety. The place of fire safety in the vehicle structure is determined on the basis of the technical regulation definition in the automotive industry. The statistics of fires in motor vehicles for 5 years has been collected and analyzed. Particular attention has been paid to the analysis of fires in buses since 2001. The main causes and locations of bus fires were considered. Operating requirements for the fire safety of buses were detailed on the basis of the technical regulations. According to the results of the GRSG expert group, at the World Forum WP.29 a table of the UN Rules was presented which included the issues referring to the overall safety of the vehicle and the rules of technical regulation of high-capacity buses fire safety. The key tendencies and dangerous places requiring additional study were identified at «FIVE» conference. International research results on similar issues were taken into consideration, including tests on evacuation conditions (Hungary), automatic fire extinguishing system (Sweden), as well as advanced composite materials. Vehicle protection against fire by means of automatic fire extinguishing systems was proposed, including special equipped vehicles (wheelchairs, buses for transporting children, vehicles for transportation of money and valuable cargo, vehicles for transportation of dangerous goods). Recommendations for equipping buses with automatic fire extinguishing systems together with methods of testing such systems were made and included in the amendments to UN Regulation N 107. The further development of the UN Regulation N 110 was outlined considering the incidents in the Netherlands and improving the UN Regulation N 118 methods by adding more rigid requirements existing for railway and sea transport. The conclusions contain proposals to improve the situation. The statistics of bus fires with their reference to their occurrence and causes in the Russian Federation was presented and the ways of fire safety further development of the object under study considering international research were suggested.