NEW YORK TIMES: …When a car on a highway collides with another vehicle, or hits a stationary obstacle like a tree, a big part of the danger is sudden, extreme deceleration. That is the main reason seatbelts are so effective. Every object in the car that is not restrained keeps moving forward at high speed. That includes humans, who can fly forward into steering wheels and through windshields, suffering potentially fatal impact injuries.
But a train is so massive, with so much momentum, that it almost never experiences that kind of deceleration. (One exception is when two trains collide, which is very rare.) Less extreme deceleration usually means less extreme impact injuries. A train hitting a car or truck at a grade crossing barely slows down at first…
Just as important, it is not clear that seatbelts would produce a net reduction in harm. Studies have shown that lap belts, like those used on airliners, would increase serious spinal injuries in train crashes, as people’s upper bodies whipped forward… (more)
