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u/Bruce-7892 20h ago
I am pretty sure that would still F you up, but at least this way they don't have to clean you off the front of the train I guess.
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u/MinervaJB 20h ago
This lowers the chance of going under the tram, I guess?
My city has a tram, and the daughter of a coworker saw a 12-year-old kid be run over by the tram (tied to cross the street, the tram hit them straight on and sent them under the carriage). Tried to help because she was a first-year nursing student at the time. Kid died anyway, and it was so horrifying the poor girl needed therapy.
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u/Kooky_Attention_98 20h ago edited 20h ago
Yeah, also I think these things go way faster, it's not a bad idea necessarily but one could still get caught underneath
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u/liverswithfavabeans 19h ago
Maybe also prevents some trauma if it blocks the driver from seeing the person hurt.
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u/catlover2410 18h ago
I think they still have to get out of the tram and check on that person as standard procedure...
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u/Bruce-7892 18h ago
Me as a train engineer;
"I didn't see shit. Oh that? It was like that when I got it, someone should fix that windshield and clean the thing".
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u/Strange-Spot-3306 12h ago
i don't know about trams - but with trains standard procedure for them (in switzerland at least) is to sound the horn, initiate emergency braking, and then turn away, close their eyes, hands over ears. After a collision with a human they are expected to make an emergency call and stay on the train (maybe check on the passengers etc.), they should absolutely not go out there and look for the remains of whatever they hit.
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u/Meewelyne 11h ago
That's quite sensitive towards the driver, I don't think there's much they can do once they actually hit someone.
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u/314159265358979326 19h ago
In reality, you'd expect the brakes to be hammered on, so the speed might not be too wrong.
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u/Cool-Newspaper-1 13h ago
Accidents don’t usually happen on empty straight roads where the trams are fast, they happen when people run across the rails in stations/at stops.
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u/ChemicalRain5513 13h ago
The speed limit is 50. A lot of the time they will be going 30 or slower, especially around busy intersections and crossings.
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u/LordVectron 12h ago
They mostly dont go much faster than this. Tram stops aren't very far apart, mostly.
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u/Hokulol 20h ago
I mean, yeah, if the tram is going fast enough it's probably not going to save you.
That being said there is probably a sweet spot of speed where this will reduce casualties.
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u/Konrad_M 13h ago
It will definitely help. Trams in cities don't go too fast. This thing won't prevent any damage. But it can definitely make a difference between death and severe injuries. Or between severe injuries and only bruises.
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u/spicygayunicorn 8h ago
Yeah trams aren't like regular trains going fast all the time they usually go pretty slow in most places and don't need to long to break enough to a speed where this could save lives
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u/xarcastic 20h ago
Yeah, like using a cheese knife to spread you out into a thin layer that’ll pressure wash off quickly.
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u/Remote-Cause755 20h ago
Does it normally go that slow?
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u/UnhappyAddition7281 20h ago
Ex-zürcher here, they go rather slow but can go extremely fast, fatal accidents aren’t uncommon unfortunately, i had a friend who’s father remained completely paralysed after a tram accident.
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u/I_Play_Boardgames 12h ago
Yeah, but completely paralyzed without this airbag would mean bad injury but likely full recovery or near-full recovery with the airbag.
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u/pioneer76 4h ago
Yes, this seems like a very good invention considering the danger to a human in an actual collision.
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u/Worth-Appointment-41 14h ago
Most accidents are at slow speeds, when pedestrians share the way with trams.
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u/1B75__Penicillin 20h ago
It's a tram, they are all slow
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u/herdek550 14h ago edited 4h ago
Depends on what you consider slow. For example in Prague, there are sections where trams go up to 60 km/h (~37 mph).
Edit: The speed is lower in crowded city center, but it's not unusual to have crosswalk crossing a tram tracks where tram goes 45 km/h (pedestrians don't have priority over tram even on crosswalk)
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u/NucleosynthesizedOrb 12h ago
In the Utrecht Science Park, the fast sections are fenced and the sections where people may cross the tram goes slower
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u/secretdrug 20h ago
Oh are we tram collision experts today? Hold on, lemme get my safety vest and read what the other coments are saying so i know what to repeat for the 100th time.
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u/npsideqown 12h ago
Excuse me, where's your hard-hat?
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u/secretdrug 11h ago
oops, i musta left it on my other armchair. I just came from giving my expert opinion on the law and police tactics in a youtube comment section, you see. please excuse the lack of osha compliance.
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u/Cryptshadow 12h ago
First thing to repeat is this. Stop running in front of the fucking train
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u/TearsInDrowned 10h ago
I am going insane everyday at my work... I am a tram driver since January, and the amount of people just going in front of my tram is insane...
I count 10 at minimum every work day...
most of those also when pedestrians have a red and I have a green!
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u/Hopperd12 20h ago
They need those in India. But the cost of replacing them after being deployed is probably WAY higher than they want to pay
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u/YouDoNotKnowMeSir 20h ago
Unfortunately too big of an apex predator to rectify with a single solution
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u/Hopperd12 20h ago
Fun fact. India according to recent data (2024) has had 22413 fatalities involving trains. That like 61 people a day.
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u/Kaurifish 19h ago
Still fewer than we kill in the U.S. every day with cars (~100).
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u/Wonderful_Bet_1541 14h ago
But people in India die almost 4x from auto related accidents a day compared to the US.
You are quite literally comparing apples to oranges
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u/Dantioch_IW 12h ago
And Indians killed by car is around 550 a day while in the US 3 people die to trains. Whats your point?
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u/External-Creme-6226 19h ago
Really fucks up the trolley problem. Can’t theoretical ethics professors catch a break?
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u/elthepenguin 11h ago
Let me rephrase the trolley problem for you.
You drive a tram, and can decide to deploy the airbag. Do you do this and pay 1000 EUR to reinstall a new airbag or 50 EUR to wash the blood from the tram?
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u/ImNotJoaquinPhoenix 20h ago
Good thing humans are made of low-friction plastic that will easily slide along infront of the tram, and not turn into meat-crayons.
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u/Barren_E_Wuffett 20h ago
This thing probably slows down quicker than a human being sliding across the ground.
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u/Solarisphere 20h ago
I feel like you could make an airbag that basically blasts a giant inflatable mattress out underneath you. Might break legs though, not sure how fast it would need to inflate.
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u/Nugget834 20h ago
that was my first thought.. but hey better than being hit?
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u/H0rnytw1nkl0v3r 20h ago
Reading a lot of these comments I don't think people realize the speed trams travel at. This team appears to be traveling at full speed in the video. Will this invention leave you harmless? Definitely not you will have road rash, maybe a concussion, maybe even some broken bones. Will you be run over and killed? No you won't. Sure there is always a possibility you would still die from landing wrong but your chances of living are now increased by a drastic amount.
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u/ratchetcoutoure 13h ago
What does this mean, you will still be injured but at least you won't die?
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u/waldothefrendo 13h ago
Absorbs some of the shock and by the looks also prevents you from getting under the tram
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u/kpsmithdeut 18h ago
If you get hit by a tram, the slowest of nature‘s rail-based animals, that’s on you
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u/Narrow-Barracuda618 11h ago
It's mostly people walking around while on their phone, not noticing the tram coming.
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u/I_Play_Boardgames 12h ago
I'm pretty sure these people intend on getting hit by the tram. The point is to prevent that option and also save money to repair the tram front from the impact and the mandatory paid leave and psychotherapy for the driver.
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u/Vindve 10h ago
In France now trams must have a face shape that pulls up a body instead of allowing it to pass beneath the tramway. Very visible on this picture, old design against new design https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mat%C3%A9riel_roulant_du_tramway_d%27%C3%8Ele-de-France#/media/Fichier:Tram_T3b_Citadis_402_IDFM_et_RATP.jpg
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u/swiftrobber 10h ago
I wonder how does that affect the aerodynamics of the train against the regular one
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u/SinclairChris 3h ago
I feel like it should deploy in a shape that has a point in the front or is angled to the side away from the tracks. I feel like this design is going to cause people to be caught and pushed to the middle of the train which could cause them to go under the air bag. I'm not an engineer though so I could be completely wrong.
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u/handyandy314 15h ago
So if two trams ram into each other they should bounce backwards. Sumo teams!
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u/Data_Chandler 12h ago
Can someone tell me what this type of horrendous atrocious fucking garbage music is that's now playing in every other video? I can't even tell if it's "real" music or an AI creation designed to piss people off to drive engagement.
Holy fucking shit I hate it so much.
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u/kayl_the_red 20h ago
Edmonton needs this on the SIDES of our streetcars, because our drivers STILL think they are targets.
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u/CMO_Sparkles 20h ago
How bad is it that I, too, immediately thought of Edmonton? I even thought this was the Edmonton subreddit at first.
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u/Tallowpot 20h ago
Dammit!
I had a similar idea for a cartoonish, albeit, Goldbergesque contraption for picking up the homeless without waking them for a locomotive.
I used to train
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u/Gold-Bard-Hue 20h ago
Yes, at full speed you will simply bounce off and then be sucked under the tracks and still die a horrible death.
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u/Cipher915 20h ago
All that's going to do is remove the realistic splat sound from the operators nightmares
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u/thewildbeej 19h ago
I don't like this...it undoes years of existential dread of the trolley problem.
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u/domiciledhere 18h ago
Why doesn’t the airbag push them away from the vehicle? I mean it looks like they are trying as hard as they can to run him over
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u/HODLpipo 12h ago
I actually work for the Company Alstom in Zurich and we are developing this Airbag currently.
We are now starting the pre-series production; the previous development phases were a complete success. We have received great interest from customers and expect the product to save lives.
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u/ParkingGeologist2441 10h ago
Wasted opportunity - it should have launcued the pedestrian to the side - that way there is no delay because of idiots
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u/BlackRaspberryJammin 10h ago
At least in the US we don't require seat belts on school buses and our current president is a pedophile rapist.
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u/TearsInDrowned 10h ago
people just should stop trying to get run over by trams...
it's maddening, I get pedestrians and cyclists doing this EVERY WORK DAY! 10 times in a work day at minimum...
most of the time they do that when I have a green and they have a red!
literal insanity
I almost hit so many people yesterday, nobody looks around, and they get so surprised and offended when I sound my bell at them 🙄 DON'T GO JUST IN FRONT OF A F*****G TRAM THEN!
madness 🫣
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u/ActuatorFit416 10h ago
How does it trigger? I hope it is a combination of distance and speed or in some places it would activate by people crossing in front of it.
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u/Novel-Paramedic-5573 9h ago
The trauma of having to live in Zurich is enough to make death by tram seem like a reasonable option
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u/Brazuka_txt 8h ago
I think they should put a comically large hand in the front to slap people away from the track
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u/0verstim 17h ago
We are determined to eliminate the effectiveness of natural selection
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u/_Isoroku_Yamamoto 12h ago
tell me you actually know nothing about human evolution and just wanna sound edgy on the internet without telling me
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u/hardwood1979 20h ago
If you get hit by something as heavy as a train I feel you need more than an inflatable to save you.
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u/doppelbach 19h ago
The weight really isn't what matters here. A single tram or a mile long freight train will do the same damage to you if hitting at the same speed.
Weight only matters in collisions to the extent it affects the final speed, i.e. how much does the colliding object slow down and how fast does the impacted object get sent flying. For a person against basically any vehicle, the person is doing all of the accelerating.
I'd bet this thing is actually really effective at reducing damage from the initial hit. But then all of the energy you (relatively) gently absorbed from the tram will kill you anyway when you hit the ground...
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u/No_Taste_907 19h ago
If you decide to walk on a clear set of tracks and can't see a tram-kun about to take you out of this world, then natural selection desersves to have you. Looking both ways before you cross and not walking with noise canceling headphones on will significantly lessen getting yeeted out of exsistence.
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u/ItsKlobberinTime 18h ago
But why? A train is confined to one axis of motion along a very specific path. If you manage to get hit by one, that's between you and Darwin.
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u/Pyronatic 20h ago
Have they tried making it in the shape of a scope of like a wedge on on school trains, to push away from the track. Because thats some real road rash.
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u/Beautiful_Climate_18 20h ago
How would you stop kids from playing around with it?
Next "internet challenge" see how close you can get without getting hit.
And no consequences if you do.
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u/princeofottawa 19h ago
In Ottawa, our trains just don’t drive 2/3 of the year. But don’t worry. It only cost 7 billion
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u/Appropriate_Can_9282 19h ago
I'd say lame, they deserve what they get. BUT.... operators can get wrecked in the head for something out of their control, if that can be prevented or minimized then I support it.
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u/MessiLeagueSoccer 19h ago
The bright line in Florida could really use this. It’s gotten so bad they even made an Instagram page everytime it happened. Felt like there was at least an entire week where it happens once a day.
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u/ComprehensiveDare472 19h ago
In "our day" we used to call this natural selection. I'm all for protecting the weak, but this feels like overdoing it.. XD
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u/mwoody450 17h ago
I can't stop imagining it triggering a half second too late and yeeting the pedestrian instead of cushioning it.
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u/Smirkeywz 13h ago
Why are we adult-baby proofing the world ?
I swear if these are implemented there's going to be a huge number of scumbags who would go and get the airbags triggered in a stunt for socmed content.
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u/Traditional-Hotel-66 20h ago