French Bus Crash

[deltashad]

The new Mercedes-Benz E-class (since 2009) includes the Attention Assist feature, which detects if the driver is falling asleep.


Surely every long distance commercial passenger travelling vehicle should have this as a standard feature by now?

[McSam]

It's not cheap, I imagine even less so for a retrofit into an old vehicle, and I think it's kind of hoped that a professional driver shouldn't need it.

[jamei303]

PCV drivers should be trained to take appropriate breaks, rather than delegate that decision to a device.

"I feel tired but the system doesn't agree yet so I'll continue"

[djfaulkner]

If it was proven that the driver fell asleep, wonder if MB can be sued as the Attention Assist feature didnt work.

Or will that be put down as the cause of the accident? Same as people blame sat-navs for driving into rivers etc.....

[deltashad]

There's a system where it sends alarms into the headrests when activated. I understand that professional drivers shouldn't need it and a retrofit would be expensive but brand new buses cost from £100k upwards, I think, not really into buses though, or trains. sorry

[J4CKO]

A chap at work said his suister had three of her kids on this bus, thankfully they are all ok, terrible for the teacher who died and the kids that have not been so lucky with injuries.

This is a new story that we hear every year, i.e. a coach crash, and it is usually kids or pensioners but generally coaches are a very safe way to travel, especically now they have seatbelts, the main thing we can do is urge our kids to actually use them, one of the children I mentioned had to be cut free from theirs but it did its job.

I suspect the sleep monitor could be useful but I will bet a lot of drivers would just turn it off when it starts interfering, they have been around since 2009 but most coaches are older than that, some are thirty years old, though by no means as bad as the heaps we used to travel on.

[deltashad]

I remember coming back from Normandy on a school trip back in '83, what a skip, sitting up the back seat with flick knifes, novelty lighters, cigarettes and banger/fireworks. Thats what French trips were about back then. Mad.

[Shadow R1]

The bus had a spare driver though.

[Chrisw666]

Shadow R1 said:

The bus had a spare driver though.

I've driven for far too long with a spare driver sat next to me.

Generally when you set off you decide who will drive which legs, for commercial drivers this will usually be dictated by driving to the edge of what they are allowed then a quick change. With a bus full of school kids stopping and then letting them off can balls up your ETA.