The summer is about to kick off, whether it is the longing for thousands of miles away, or the heartfelt return home, travel safety is always a point that we cannot ignore during the journey.
Source: China Railway
On the plane, we were tightly fastened by seat belts to prevent turbulence in the airflow; In the car, seat belts are our "lifeline", protecting us from the impact of sudden braking or collisions. However, when we step on the speeding high-speed train, no one reminds us to wear seat belts, why is that?
Why on planes and cars
Wear your seatbelt at all times
During our journey, whether it is on an airplane at a height of thousands of miles or a car speeding on the ground, we may encounter sudden turbulence in the air flow or drastic changes in speed. These sudden events are often accompanied by huge acceleration changes, causing varying degrees of impact on our bodies.
When an aircraft enters an area of unstable airflow, it may encounter sudden upward or downward airflow, and this violent turbulence will make passengers and crew feel significantly weightless or overweight, which can easily cause physical discomfort or even injury.
Similarly, if a car speeding on the ground encounters an emergency braking or collision, the speed will suddenly change, and the passengers in the car will continue to move forward at the original speed due to the action of inertia, and this sharp speed change and inertial force may cause injuries to the passengers.
Seat belts are designed with these potential hazards in mind. It has a special mechanism inside it - an emergency self-locking device, when the vehicle or aircraft accelerates or decelerates sharply, the seat belt will quickly lock, restricting the movement of the passenger's body, thereby reducing injuries caused by inertia.
No seat belts are used
How to ensure the safety of passengers
High-speed rail does not rely on safety belts to ensure the safety of passengers, but through excellent stability, safe anti-collision seats, intelligent early warning systems, strict safety management and other methods. The comprehensive application of these high-tech technical means and management measures has reduced the occurrence of emergencies and greatly improved the safety of high-speed rail.
Let's take a look at a few "seat belts" on high-speed rail.
First of all, the high-speed train travels so smoothly that people hardly feel that it is driving at high speeds. This is due to the high-speed rail's advanced suspension system and the design of the "ballastless (zhǎ) track". Refers to small stones, conventional railways are built on the basis of small stones, then laid sleepers or concrete sleepers, and finally laid steel rails, this kind of track is called ballasted track, it is not suitable for high-speed train travel.
Ballasted track VS ballastless track Source: popular science of mechanics
Ballastless track is a kind of track structure that uses concrete, asphalt mixture and other integral foundations to replace gravel. It can avoid splash ballast to the greatest extent, and has good smoothness and high stability. At the same time, the high-speed rail track alignment design index is high, it is relatively straight, and the curve radius is large, which can ensure that the train can basically move forward in a straight line without large horizontal or longitudinal vibration.
In addition, the acceleration and deceleration process of high-speed rail is extremely gentle, and passengers will hardly feel the obvious feeling of pushing back or leaning forward, so the seat belt seems to be a little "redundant" here.
If you put a coin on the window, it will not fall down at high speed Source: Hubei Emergency Management
Second, improve the design of high-speed rail seats to improve passenger safety in the event of an accident.
At present, the seat commonly used in the world's high-speed rail is a crash-proof safety seat, which can collapse and deform in time when the head or knee of the rear passenger hits the back of the seat forward, prevent the passenger from being stuck, and ensure that the passenger can escape as soon as possible after the accident.
Based on this characteristic, the seat fabric is generally made of leather and textile materials. In addition, the fabric of the high-speed rail seat also has good flame retardancy to prevent fires in closed carriages with dense crowds.
Safety seat of the Fuxing train Source: Popular science of mechanics
Thirdly, the intelligent early warning system of high-speed rail can also prevent dangerous events in time, greatly reducing the accident rate and improving safety performance.
The intelligent early warning system of high-speed rail is like a "clairvoyant" and a "downwind ear", which can catch abnormalities in time, whether it is bad weather, track abnormalities, or other potential safety hazards, they cannot escape their "magic eyes".
The high-speed rail's intelligent early warning system also has an "intelligent brain" that can quickly analyze the situation and make decisions. The system uses advanced sensors and algorithms to monitor the running status and track environment of the train in real time to ensure the safe and stable operation of the train. If a potential hazard is detected, the system automatically adjusts the speed of the train or takes other necessary measures to ensure the safety of passengers.
For example, a total of 16 seismographs are installed between Shifang West and Zhenjiangguan section of the Sichuan-Qingdao Railway to form a high-speed railway earthquake early warning system. When the EMU train train control system and the on-board seismic device send Level III alarm information, the train control system and the on-board seismic device will control the train emergency braking, and at the same time, the catenary will be powered off, so as to ensure the safety of the EMU train.
Staff inspect the earthquake early warning system of the Sichuan-Qingdao Railway High-speed Railway Source: Mianzhu Today
In addition, China's high-speed rail system has extremely safe and strict management tools and standards. The mainland's "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network can ensure that there is only one train in a section by monitoring the operating vehicles in real time and displaying them on the same dispatching map. At the same time, the high-speed rail is coming from morning to evening, and vehicles and routes must be inspected and repaired every night to ensure the normal operation of various equipment.
It can be seen from this that the high-speed rail uses various means to achieve the smooth operation of the whole process, basically no emergencies, and uses a number of invisible "seat belts" to ensure the safety of passengers, so naturally there is no need for tangible seat belts.
Wearing a "seat belt" on high-speed rail
Instead more "dangerous"?
Imagine you're sitting on a high-speed train, enjoying the view from the window and the tranquility inside the carriage. Suddenly, an emergency alarm sounded and a quick evacuation was required. At this point, if you have a seatbelt on you, it can become a "danger belt" that can tie your hands and feet when you need it most.
In an emergency, seat belts can act as an escape barrier, restricting the movement of passengers and increasing the time and difficulty of evacuation. The European Commission for Railway Safety and Standards has found through extensive investigations that passengers are more likely to be injured when they are restrained in their seats in the event of a major accident on a train.
Therefore, the designers of high-speed rail have taken this into account, eliminating unnecessary seat belts to allow passengers to evacuate more quickly in case of an emergency.
"Free travel" on high-speed rail
In addition to safety considerations, the need not to wear seat belts on high-speed trains is to make our travel experience more comfortable.
On high-speed rail, seat belts are no longer standard, but are replaced by a new travel experience – freedom. You can stretch out freely in your seat, get up and stroll around the carriage and enjoy every moment of your journey.
Seat belts are safeguards, not restraints. When you take the high-speed rail and find that there is no seat belt on the seat, don't be surprised and don't worry, this is the "freedom pass" given to you by the high-speed rail, so that you can be more comfortable during the ride.
But while enjoying freedom, we must also remain vigilant, not ignore safety, understand and learn safety knowledge and escape skills on the high-speed rail, so that freedom and safety go hand in hand.
Whether you're enjoying the beautiful scenery on the train or high-speed train, or you're about to board a plane and put your phone into airplane mode, whether it's necessary to wear a seatbelt, keep safety first.
Source: Beijing Daily