Overall Trends

BUSES Overall Trends road and collided into trees, sustaining heavy damage. 1 Introduction: Social Trends and Needs This serious accident cost the lives of 15 people, mainly Affecting Buses university students. This was the highest number of bus Among vehicles, buses have a small market scale but fatalities since the 1985 accident involving a bus falling unlike trucks, which are also production goods, they are into the Sai River in Nagano, and the accident shocked distinguished by the fact that they only transport people society. and that the needs of bus operators are essentially fixed. Immediately after the accident, the media presented Consequently, the needs of the operators are directly re- images of the wreckage of the over 3.5 m tall super high flected in the vehicles. The prerequisite of reliability re- decker tangled in trees with its cabin, which should have sults in a strong tendency to prefer vehicles with a con- been about 2 m high, collapsed to about 1 m near the servative approach over those presenting major changes. middle of the vehicle. It then came to light that the acci- With respect to bus vehicle technology, a system where dent involved factors such as the bus veering off the the Nihon Bus Association takes the lead in compiling an road at a speed well over the limit, the driver being el- “improvement wish list by brand (model)” from the main derly and having minimal experience driving heavy-duty nationwide operators and calls upon manufacturers to vehicles, and the bus traveling on a different route than address it has been firmly established for over 50 years, scheduled. Later, it was also learned that the contract and these wish lists have been applied to improving ease between the bus company and the travel agency, as well of maintenance and durability. Improvements that are as the operation management framework, were full of in- not urgently required are typically applied when per- fractions. These infractions were due to sloppy manage- forming one of the product updates known as a complete ment practices, and measures following the accident fo- or major redesign, and as with trucks, it has become cus- cused primarily on improving the quality of bus tomary for such upgrades to be triggered by new envi- operators and strengthening their management frame- ronmental regulations. works, and did not lead to the feared major damage in Buses are no exception to the rapid advances in auto- reputation for the entire sightseeing bus industry. motive technology and various innovation spurred by In contrast, although the investigation on potential changes in the environment. Beyond conformity to regu- technical causes is not finished, no fault has been found lations and the maintenance-based wishes of operators, in the brake system. The significant deformation of the social trends affecting buses are fostering changes in the bus body also received attention, as had the severely bus industry, and the fact that buses are highly social damaged, torn wreckage of the still remembered severe vehicles means that many of those changes turn into expressway tour bus accident on the Kan-Etsu Express- needs that influence the evolution of technology. This way (April 2012), where the bus veered off the road perspective will inform the discussion that follows on the shoulder and crashed into the soundproofing wall. how the environment around buses in 2016 influences The bus in the Karuizawa accident was a 2002 model their technology. that was compliant with international standards for bus 1. 1. Influence of the Karuizawa Ski Tour Bus body rigidity (R66). These standards stipulate that pas- Accident. senger survival space must be ensured if there is defor- Shortly after 1 AM on January 15, 2016, a bus on its mation when a stopped bus is made to roll over from 800 way to a ski resort in Karuizawa, Nagano, veered off the mm above the ground. The survival space is defined as a Copyright© 2017 Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. All rights reserved maximum deformation of 150 mm inward where the side The number of years buses remain in service contin- direction has height of 500 mm above the floor, and 400 ues to rise. Although this can be described as a result of mm inward where that same height is 1,250 mm. Conse- parts and manufacturing quality, the degradation of bus quently, 1,250 mm of vertical space must be secured operator business environment cannot be overlooked. It above the floor, but the pictures of the accident show has become commonplace for operators unable to afford that the roof crashed into trees almost exactly at its mid- new vehicles to rely on used vehicles as replacements. point, subjecting it to concentrated loads that explain its This may partially stem from the fact that the exterior significant deformation. Even current international regu- styling of Japanese-made heavy-duty sightseeing buses lations do not account for this kind of concentrated does not change. In effect, there are only two styles of stress. It is safe to say that the extent of the speed and current Japanese models. The last complete exterior re- impact at the time of the accident were far beyond the designs date to 2005 and 2007, which corresponds to the what the designers had anticipated, making it more fea- average vehicle age of charter buses in Japan. It aged sible to consider ways of prevent buses from veering off vehicles cannot be distinguished from new ones, it is pos- the road. This need to ensure safety is common to all au- sible that the number of years they remain in service tomotive technologies, but it goes without saying that it will rise even more. Although the fact that aged vehicles becomes even more crucial in buses, where a single driv- do not become obsolete is not a bad thing in and of itself, er holds many lives in his hands. More objective evalua- there is something to be said for modifying the external tion criteria, and a work management system supporting styling of buses in terms of revitalizing the market. them, have become prerequisites to continue guarantee- Given the premise that bus operations must ensure ing the heretofore taken for granted skill level and expe- profitability through fare revenue, the rise in vehicle rience of drivers̶their quality, in other words, in the fu- prices that accompanies compliance with environmental ture. regulations cannot simply be ignored. In that respect, It was not raised as a problem in this case, despite the manufactures could effectively provide users with data vehicle in the accident having been in operation only showing how the superior environmental performance slightly longer than the 11 year national average for and improved fuel efficiency of new vehicles makes them charter buses, deterioration such as corrosion of its chas- more advantageous than superannuated models in terms sis stood out, and, upon selling it, the previous owner re- of total cost, including maintenance. There is a need for portedly warned the operator that continued use was persuasive activities aimed at educating operators who dangerous. Attention must be drawn the fact that the follow the principle of necessity knows no law. new operator actually kept the bus in operation after be- 1. 2. Overview of Technology Supporting Safe Bus ing warned of the danger of continuing to use it. While Operation following up on the maintenance status of new vehicles The measures taken after the Karuizawa accident de- is possible to some extent, doing so for vehicles that have scribed in the previous section mainly focused on ar- changed hands several times is difficult. Use environ- rangements concerning intangible elements. The most ment and the actual maintenance performed means that important requirement for a bus operating business is in- not all vehicles are in the same condition. It is imperative stilling a corporate culture that makes safety the top pri- to immediately correct situations were vehicles identified ority not just for the obvious candidates represented by as dangerous remain in operation. the drivers, mechanics and operation managers involve Measures to expand the inspection and maintenance of in operating the buses, but for the executives as well. aged vehicles are also urgently needed. Although some The government is moving quickly to investigate opera- major operators have increased the number of mainte- tors with low safety awareness, reinforce the mecha- nance inspection items for aged vehicles and pay particu- nisms to impose withdrawals as necessary, and recover lar attention to when parts or lubricants must be consumer trust. At the same time, the spread technolo- changed, doing so is not mandated by law. There is prob- gies that support safe driving is setting higher expecta- ably a need for extensive inspections of aged vehicles tions. targeting operators without a proper maintenance frame- The latest heavy-duty sightseeing vehicles are being work. equipped with collision mitigation braking systems, fol- Copyright© 2017 Society of Automotive Engineers of Japan, Inc. All rights reserved lowing distance warning systems, lane departure warning systems and vehicle stability control. Further, more and more vehicles include driver monitoring systems that monitor the driver’s gaze and to prevent distraction or drowsiness. In addition to those systems, accessories that detect signs of drowsiness from veins in the driver’s ear have become available and are gradually being ad- opted by bus operators. Some bus operators have also introduced systems that combine the alerts detected by those accessories or de- vices with drive recorder images to perform constant Fig. 1 System enabling monitoring of on-board device alerts from the office monitoring from the office and apply the information to the management of operations.

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