Coroner Urges A Ban On Bull-bars
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday October 19, 1993
The NRMA has called for research on the effects of bull-bars on vehicle and pedestrian safety after a recommendation that the bars be banned.
An NRMA research engineer, Mr Jack Hailey, said yesterday that bull-bars would probably cause severe injuries to pedestrians and could affect the safety performance of a car in a crash.
He said there did not appear to be any need for vehicles in metropolitan areas to be fitted with bars.
"Intuitively, there's not a lot of justification for bull-bars in metropolitan areas and we don't yet have an official policy on their use," he said.
"It's a matter of research, and (bull-bars) really do need investigation further."
His comments followed a recommendation by Victoria's Deputy State Coroner, Mr Iain West, that bull-bars be banned from commercial and private vehicles.
Mr West gave his recommendation in Melbourne yesterday while handing down his finding into the death of Mr Ernest Bowd, 86, who was hit on September 10 last year by a Toyota Tarago van fitted with a bull-bar.
The impact on pedestrians hit by a bull-bar was greater than if they were hit by a vehicle without a bar, Mr West said. He also said bull-bars on vehicles gave negligible protection to drivers and passengers.
Mr Hailey said bull-bars could affect the structural safety of a car and the triggering of air bags, which were becoming more common.
"We can make an intuitive guess that bull-bars would spoil the aerodynamics of many types of car that have the 'sloping nose' design," he said.
A bull-bar designer, Mr Ricky Page, said strict guidelines were needed on their use, especially on vehicles in towns.
"A lot of people put (bull-bars) on their cars to protect them getting damaged in parking lots by other drivers and that sort of thing when a smaller, lighter nudge-bar would do," Mr Page said.
"Bars are meant for kangaroos on country roads, and I realise the damage they can do to a pedestrian."
Mr Page, who owns the Bull Bar Centre in Peakhurst, said many bull-bars were unsuitable because they were too heavy and large for the cars they were fitted to.
A spokesman for Victoria's Minister for Transport, Mr Alan Brown, said the minister had called for the Coroner's findings and a report from the State's road transport authority, VicRoads, on the use of bull-bars in metropolitan areas.
© 1993 Sydney Morning Herald
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