Experimental Study of Non-Compatible Collision of Rail and Road Vehicle

Hedvika Kovandová
Czech Technical University in Prague Faculty of Transportation Sciences Konviktska 20 110 00 Prague 1

Robert Válka
UVN Military University Hospital Prague U Vojenské nemocnice 1200 169 02 Prague 6

Abstract

The paper deals with safety of transport from the point of view of an important social problem, which are accidents at railroad (including tramway) and road level crossings, which means compatibility of rail and road vehicles crash. The scale of such accidents can be very wide. Regarding the statistics and frequency of accidents particularly at railway level crossings and tramway level crossings, a collision simulating the collision of a tram and passenger car was experimentally carried out. The experiment took place at the site of testing laboratory of Rail Vehicles Research Institute in Cerhenice. The experiment was conducted with a passenger car Škoda Superb of the first generation that was exposed to two collisions from both sides. Firstly by the impactor for tram headstock tests and secondly by the tram headstock itself. Both the impactor and the headstock were placed on the experimental vehicle for tests of passive safety of rail vehicles. Various speeds were chosen so that the passenger car could be used for two subsequent experiments without the influence on properties of skeleton´s supporting structure.