KOCHI: A bus ride will be more safer soon. Six students from Malabar College of Engineering and Technology in Thrissur have come up with a project to save bus passengers and students commuting in school or college buses from accidents.
A ‘smart bus’ developed by final year Mechanical Engineering students Rameez A Y, Praveen K P, Tony Thomas, Nikhil K M, Faushan Ahammed T S and Sarath B S is turning to be a model for other buses.
It the driver is drunk, a drunk driver detector, an alcoholic sensor will detect it and stop the engine. The other feature is a passenger-controlled brake system wherein if the driver loses control over the brake or if he is not willing to stop the vehicle in any condition, the passengers can ‘stop’ the vehicle by operating the brake system in the passenger cabin. A fire and safety system is such that an an alarm is activated in case of a fire which in turn activates the sprinkler, and also the system can spray water - foam mixture through the sprinkler. There is also a safe door system that prevents the engine from running if the door is left open.
The project ‘smart bus’ includes the design, fabrication and implementation of these systems in buses.
“We conducted a survey about “the safety and precautions in vehicles of educational institutional” and it was alarming. There are around 2,000 school and college buses running in Kerala, but safety precautions are thrown to the winds. When compared to light motor vehicles, heavy vehicles have only 30 per cent safety rating leading to rise in accident rate. The main causes for mishaps were mechanical problems of vehicles and drunk driver,” said Ramees.“Besides incidents of buses catching fire and women being harassed in buses are a big issue. To tackle these problems, we have developed a new safety system for educational institutional buses,” he said.
It was implemented with a minimum cost of `15,000. The team is also planning to submit the project to Kerala Motor Vehicles Department. The team said that it is also subjected to approval in ‘startup village’ at technopark.