The Origins of Safe-T-Punch: The Brook Farm Bus Accident in 1994
Safe-T-Punch?
Passenger Transport Emergency Window Break-Glass Devices Manufacturer. Supplying road, rail and marine industries.
The Book Farm Bus Accident in 1994 took the lives of 36 forestry workers who drowned inside the bus they were travelling in; only one "push-out" type emergency window came out.
Here, in South Africa, we still allow for "knock-out" emergency windows; our battle here to change the rules is ongoing. Only part of the UN ECE Regulation 107 is implemented and although some vehicles (some of our mini-bus taxis) must have a device with which to break to break the roof hatch, many buses are not required to have devices at all, not even hammers...
The same year, the USA's National Safety Council https://www.nsc.org/ published a report on School Bus Safety: STAR II written by T Frusti and J Ewers. In it they explore bus submersion; it's speed and effects. This is just one page where they say a bus is nothing more than " a lead pipe" once it enters the water...
Similar tragedies occur all over the world, both submersion and fire: we continue our efforts to save the lives of ordinary people
More in the Origins Story to follow...