Why are seat belts not provided on high-speed trains and high-speed trains?

In summary, there are three main reasons for this.

First, the stability control of high-speed rail is extremely strict, even to the point of abnormality. To give the simplest example, when a high-speed train starts, whether you are chatting with friends or looking down at your newspaper, it would be difficult for you to realize that the train has started unless the scenery and light outside the window change rapidly. .

Give another example. A passenger once tested that when the train accelerated from standstill to 300 kilometers per hour on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, a cigarette he placed on the train's small table actually remained standing. There is also a shot that is also impressive. A child actually built a building with more than ten floors of building blocks on a high-speed train traveling at a speed of 300 kilometers per hour, and clapped happily to his grandfather.

High-speed rail is subject to and benefits from two tracks. On the one hand, China's high-speed railways have strict controls on acceleration to ensure the stability of longitudinal movement. On the other hand, high-speed trains are firmly controlled by two steel rails, especially the ballastless tracks used by my country's high-speed railways. The smoothness of the track ensures that the train cannot have large lateral and vertical vibrations. So under normal circumstances, you can walk freely on the train without having to fix yourself to your seat all the time.

Second, when a high-speed train accident occurs, the harm caused to passengers by the seat belts is far greater than the potential protection. This is the most important and fundamental reason. Europe has applied high-speed rail relatively early, and there have been many studies on active and passive safety of high-speed rail. The European Committee for Railway Safety and Standards has found through extensive investigations that in the event of a major train accident, passengers who are restrained in their seats are more likely to be injured. This is mainly because passengers who are restrained in their seats by seat belts are more susceptible to damage to the carriage structure. Damage caused by collapse because they cannot effectively dodge.

The research conclusion shows that on high-speed trains, improving the design of seats can more effectively improve the safety of passengers in train accidents, rather than installing seat belts. At present, the seats commonly used in high-speed railways in the world are "anti-collision" safety seats (some people think that they are just ordinary seats, so they compare the prices of high-speed railway seats and ordinary household seats like a joke, instead of Knowing the technical content of high-speed rail seats), the design can ensure that when the head or knee of a rear passenger hits the seat back forward, it can collapse and deform in time to prevent passengers from being stuck.

Under such a premise, field tests conducted by the British Transport Research Laboratory show that whether using two-point seat belts on aircraft or three-point seat belts on cars, it is impossible to achieve ideal or satisfactory results. "Safe" conclusion. Because when a two-point safety belt collides, the restraints on the passenger's waist and hips are concentrated, which exactly forms the axis of rotation. The force of the head diving forward and hitting the seat is enough to break the neck. Choosing a three-point seat belt does not have this problem, but a new problem arises, that is, the collapse-type "anti-collision" seat is not enough to support the force constraints brought by the three-point seat belt. In other words, the two cannot be used together. .

The European railway department analyzed 6 typical longitudinal collisions and found that seat belts restrained passengers in their seats, which admittedly prevented injuries caused by passengers being thrown out. However, high-speed trains are bulky and such The possibility is very small, and the seat belt also brings great danger to the passengers. The conclusion drawn from the analysis showed that 11 people were rescued due to the fixed effect of the seat belts, but 88 people were on fixed seats and lost their escape space. Judging from the figures, the disadvantages of using seat belts on trains have been eliminated. More than benefits, especially high-speed rail.

Third, for practical reasons, it is difficult to operate in practice because people taking high-speed rail are unwilling to wear seat belts. One of the most important reasons why people choose high-speed trains instead of airplanes is that high-speed trains are spacious and operate smoothly. People are accustomed to moving freely in the carriages and visiting friends, so few people are willing to wear seat belts on high-speed rails.

Europe once conducted an experiment. In 1999, Finland conducted a trial on a commercial high-speed railway and installed 271 sets of safety belts in three carriages of the train. First, they conducted a survey in carriages without seat belts. Only 26% of passengers said they would use seat belts if there were any. Don’t think that the proportion of 26% is already very low. In reality, the results are even more shocking. Among the three vehicles equipped with seat belts, only 1.1% of passengers were actually willing to fasten their seat belts.

The reason given by passengers is that it is uncomfortable and goes against the nature of train travel. Eventually, Finnish Railways stopped promoting seat belts on trains and concluded that people were unwilling to use seat belts on trains.

(The above content refers to the article on the Railway Forum: "Why are there no seat belts on the EMU? Do you know the truth?")