Faults of buses and coaches in the aspects of securing safety in road traffic

The safety of buses in road traffic is very important because of potential hazards of peoples' life and health, damage and loss of freight and high costs of crash effects. The technical state of all vehicles has been examined during required periodical inspections, but in spite of this, the technical conditions of large number of vehicles have been poor. The range of inspections and their frequency have been determined according to the law of each country. The methodology and frequency has been determined in accordance with domestic legislation. The methodology of technical inspections concerns only some important systems of vehicles but not all. For example, anti-lock systems, retarders, adaptive cruise control systems, speed limitation devices etc. have not been examined. The results of examinations of 120 buses and coaches have been presented in this paper. Tests were carried out in scope of securing safety in road traffic. The methodology of compulsory periodical inspections was applied during initial tests. Vehicles were examined on typical control stands and in road tests. A special methodology for road tests for coaches with anti-lock systems was elaborated. Additional checks were carried out in cases when the results of basic tests were unsatisfactory. More than 50 vehicles of the total number of examined buses were faulty.