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The paper presents the new ‘universal’ coach safety twin seat (patent pending). It carries three-point belts, but also protects occupants sitting behind whether empty or fully loaded and whether the rear occupants are unbelted or lap-belted. The extreme 12 g reverse acceleration pulse was applied with seat spacing of 750 mm and 650 mm. The ECE Regulation 80 injury criteria were met in both Hybrid II and Hybrid III dummies (50 %ile, 5 %ile and 95 %ile), as well as the Hybrid III neck injury levels. The seat passed the 76/115/EEC belt anchorage test. With mass of 36.3 kg, conventional materials and production methods, the technical and commercial concept feasibility of such seats was fully demonstrated.

Bus superstructures may soon be subject to new rollover safety requirements. Increased rollover safety must be achieved with minimum weight or cost penalty; hence, optimisation has a significant practical relevance. This paper demonstrates the possibility of predicting the collapse performance of a bus superstructure by a completely theoretical model. The work described also created a basis for the option offered by the new regulations that allows type approval by calculation combined with some component tests. It also shows how a safety structure can be optimised from the weight or cost point of view by means of a special computer program.