r/interestingasfuck • u/HomeNowWTF • 22h ago

Tram airbags, coming soon to Zurich

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u/Kooky_Attention_98 22h ago edited 22h 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/[deleted] 20h ago

[deleted]

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u/catlover2410 20h 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 20h 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 14h 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 13h 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/Kooky_Attention_98 20h ago

Yeah, that as well in case of the worst-case scenario

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u/314159265358979326 20h 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 15h 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 14h 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/agiantdog33 13h ago

I don't know about Switzerland currently, but there are also often a lot of trackworks going on that they need to slow down for because previous governments somehow got away with neglecting them since around the early 2000s.

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u/Tjaeng 12h ago

”Previous Government” is a bit of a weird fit in Swiss context seeing as the same permanent grand coalition with the four largest parties have been forming the Swiss federal government since the 1950s.

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u/LordVectron 14h ago

They mostly dont go much faster than this. Tram stops aren't very far apart, mostly.

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u/-Majgif- 13h ago

Even if they are just pushed along by it, it's going to do some serious damage from the gravel rash, unless it's almost stopped already.

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u/Everday6 12h ago

You can see part of the airbag explicitly inflates to block the small gap to stop people going underneath.