Automotive

Vauxhall builds a safer police van

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Vauxhall builds a safer police van
Vauxhall builds a safer police van
The prison cell has undergone years of development and completed a series of simulated crash tests

Riding around in the back of a police van is the last place most of us would like to find ourselves. But when it does happen, safety is a big concern for both the occupants and the police, a factor which Vauxhall says it has addressed with its new Vauxhall Vivaro prison cell.

Designed, built and tested specifically for the Vauxhall Vivaro, the prison cell has undergone years of development and completed a series of simulated crash tests where it was accelerated from zero to 30 mph in just over a tenth of a second.

Crash performance is a serious concern for aftermarket fitted prison cells, but the Vivaro cell passed these tests "without significant deformation" according to Vauxhall.

“We have considered the potential risk to all the occupants of the vehicle in the event of a crash," said Vauxhall’s manager of vehicle conversions Dick Ellam. "Firstly we have ensured the installation is robust and there is no intrusion into the area immediately in front of the cell that could pose a potential risk of injury to occupant of the second row seating. Secondly we have considered the potential risk to unrestrained occupants of the cell and have chosen a seating arrangement that minimises this risk."

“The result is an extremely robust package which is unique to the market and a major step forward for the safety of Police van occupants,” he concluded.

The prison cell vehicle includes two rows of seating configured for up to six occupants and is the first fully fitted prison cell to be offered to the 54 UK Police services.

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3 comments
EinSascha
I wonder whether you notice the improved safety if you hit the wall at roughly 50 km/h face on. I guess seat belts should be mandatory.
Hurtle Gear
Of course prisoners are known to have deliberately self harmed, in which case there is a liability issue when police have supplied the means by which they did that, and they've been known to attack each other, in which case police face issues having supplied both the strangling iten of the belt and the cutting/ battering item in the buckle. Design for prisoners is tricky, and there are reasons certain things that seem obvious to some which have been left out for reasons of experience.
AllenH
This concept could hold the idea that would make windpower actually useful and viable. If the wind turbine is used to pump water into a reservoir. Water powered generators could generate a constant source of electricity. The water pumping capacity would be designed to exceed the water usage capacity so that when the wind wasn't blowing, electricity could still be generated.
As it is, utilities need to maintain 100% conventional power generation capacity for every wind turbine that is deployed so when the wind stops blowing, electricity won't. So in the wind you get the full cost of conventional power and wind power generation for every kilowatt you consume. Not efficient by anyone's standards (except the government)!