Yesterdays Indy had an article about an “Arriva-like” bus that caught fire in the Land Hesse in Germany. It got me thinking a little about these Mercedes Citaro buses and all the problems they have faced: not just in Malta but also in the UK and Germany to mention but a few. You may probably have heard of the Boeing Dreamliner’s issues (the 787) that forced most of the newly launched planes to be grounded. That is the way to go normally – it’s not the first time we have heard of a major car company calling back a particular model due to its defective nature being dangerous to users.
So why does the Mercedes-Citaro model (not sure if more specification is needed here) not get called back too? The more we hear about buses catching fire or stalling the more I wonder whether we are not all too eager to rush to blame the planning and the purchasing (which was atrocious of course) and whether we forget that there is a manufacturer that should to a certain extent be made responsible for certain shortcomings.
In other words while the planning and introduction of the Arriva service was definitely just a few steps short of a cosmic failure this should not overshadow the fact that the problem with these buses (aside from the ridiculous idea of putting behemoths on Malta’s tiny roads) is also something technical that should be traced back to the maker.
That, if nothing else, should justify the reasonable grounding of a large part of Arriva’s fleet until a solution to these spontaneous combustions is found.
2 replies on “Your bus is on fire”
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They are in recalls and their seems to be multiple items that are a problem.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/static/corporate/media/newscentre/archive/4360.html
http://www.recalluk.com/latest/mercedes-benz-vehicle-recall.aspx
Comparing buses with aircraft is kind of interesting, the report on a aircraft is more public so it attracts a lot of attention. If a aircraft catches fire it is a big problem.
If a inner city bus catches fire it is lees of an issue.
1. Average speeds can be 20-40 k only…. and buses can pull over in 5 seconds unlike aircraft that will fall out of the sky.
2. There are services to deal with the fire available in minutes, fires can slower and take 15 minutes before they “fully involve” the bus.
But the reports on bus fires are hard to get, it is like they are covered up by both the makers of the chassis and body suppliers, and in some cases the operators too.
A burning vehicle is not good PR opportunity for any of the persons offering services or selling the vehicle.
The problem is how the fire are reported, specifications and compliance.
1. Reports should be public. Authorities world wide need to have a system like this…
http://www.otsi.nsw.gov.au/bus/investigations.php
You will note there is a Mercedes issue there…
http://www.otsi.nsw.gov.au/bus/120405_Hillsdale_Final_Report.pdf
2. Specification of buses needs to change. Worldwide you see specifications of the engine bays where 80% of the fires start are very poor. In a lot of buses and tour coaches a chassis supplier will supply the base ….
http://www.benzinsider.com/2009/10/daimler-buses-delivers-1045-mercedes-benz-chassis-to-chile/
…then a body supplier will assemble the main frame and also contract out various sub systems like air conditioning/heating, interior seating and paneling, electronic displays and so on.
What you have in the end is multiple persons in charge of the design but communication between them is sometimes lees than it should be. The supplier of the air conditioning unit may not pass on the operating temperature limits and the equipment may end up in a hot environment surrounded by burnable insulation. The next thing is a fire if the design is not correct, I believe this is what the latest issue in Malta is.
3. Compliance. Do a search for what a bus has to comply with in design, internal components and in particular the design of the engine bay where 80% or the issues are.
You will find cars, trucks, rail, aircraft and marine all have strict compliance of design in that area, now try and find out what bus and coach have… you will find a gap in the compliance over all other types of transport vehicle design. This is world wide I cannot see any country that has compliance correct for this vehicle type.
So in various reports around the world the fires in bus and coach are on the rise every year, why?
The design is not strong enough in compliance from our various lawmakers. There is an obvious gap between other vehicles.
The output heat of engine bay components has risen over the past 2 decades, turbochargers were more common after the 1990’s, add to that Air Conditioning and heating, the introduction of more burnable items like oil storage tanks made from non metals, more light oil storage from radiator fans driven by hydraulic pumps.
From 2000’s on-wards we have seen massive development in fuel systems delivering better environmental exhaust emissions and fuel economy. There is a price, the fuel systems are either high pressure gas or a very high pressure common rail diesel.
The price is increased heat in the engine bay and at the same time design of the engine bay has not kept up with the need to supply a area where components are now much hotter.
The way forward is to have all operators of bus and coach recognize that this is not going to go away until the lawmakers and suppliers realize they have screwed up in a big way.
The operators of services need to urgently inspect the design from an independent engineer and see if the vehicle has any design flaws.
The engineering teams that put the vehicles together need to communicate more. The Body supplier is the last to work on the vehicle design before use.
Unfortunately they do not test engine bay design traditionally. They need to now have a design team that knows of the above issues.
Owners of the vehicle often get blamed for “poor maintenance” and sometimes that is true.
I have seen some fires where that cannot be proved as the blase often removes evidence, the suppliers of the vehicle will rarely admit to a design fault.
But a good investigator can sometimes trace a fault back to things like a material used for insulation was burnable, it was not capable surviving in the heat of that area and should not have been used. Many more scenarios will show up in reports where the person who supplied the vehicle has not supplied a design that is fit for purpose, they have complied with all the reliant laws… but the laws are are weak and so it goes round and round and no one is at fault.
The owners are on their own, they need to get a independent engineer trained in fire management to inspect and report on their fleet models.
When they do they may find the supplier has not been honest with them, court action may have to be used….
http://www.perthnow.com.au/news/western-australia/fire-fixes-for-perths-gas-buses/story-fnhocxo3-1226732379483
This issue is not an easy one to understand at first, but one fact is the fires in this vehicle type are on the rise every year and it is about time we all started talking about a solution.
Watch the issue in Australia in the next year, some laws are on the way. Fire management equipment should be standard equipment and is less than 1% of total vehicle cost.
Best advice I can give operators, (worldwide) is to read and follow the chapters of one of our local standards A/S 5062:2006.
It is not only a standard for fitting fire management equipment but also a guide to operators on how to risk assess a vehicle.