Richmond AFL footballer Graham Polak was struck and seriously injured by a tram on the night of 28 June 2008. This unfortunate incident once again reminds us how little is done [but could be done] with the design of the front of our trams and buses to reduce severe and fatal injury risk to pedestrians.

Trams, trains and even buses are unable to move around pedestrians or other vehicles. They also have stiff, hard front structures which can and do inflict serious head and other injuries even at low speeds.

We could easily add energy absorbing surfaces to both the front of trams and buses to makes these structures ‘crashworthy’ for pedestrians but for some unknown reason this is not happening. Such a recommendation was made in a Monash University Accident Research Centre Report for VicRoads in 1993. When will our public transport authorities actually implement known, practical safety solutions to reduce the horrible consequences of brain injury? It is about time.

Rechnitzer G. (1993) “Truck Involved Crash Study: Fatal and injury crashes of cars and other road users with the front and side of heavy vehicles”, Monash University Accident Research Centre, Melbourne, Report 35. [http://www.monash.edu.au/muarc/reports/muarc035.html]