You've seen it before on VH1's Behind the Music - a rock band, in their drunken-fueled rage, try to throw an unsuspecting groupie from the inner confines of their tour bus, only to find that when doing so, the afore-mentioned groupie accidentally hits the bus' emergency brake, sending the bus careening down a steep road into a tree.

Unfortunately, while the new Mercedes-Benz Safety Coach can't eliminate the above-described situation, it can protect its passengers in a number of other real-world driving conditions.  For example, if the driver of the bus is getting a little drowsy, Lane Assistant notifies him or her of the impending lane departure, thus avoiding a friendly highway game of bumper cars. Thanks to a new mirror system featuring a reversing camera and Litronic xenon headlamps, the process of backing up has become a bit less dangerous, especially for the homeless gentleman who took up residence behind the pretty yellow bus.  And finally, Electronic Stability Control, a continuous braking limiter and an electronically-controlled braking system all make driving the bus... you guessed it... safer.

For those interested, the Mercedes-Benz Safety Coach is available now, so get your checkbooks handy. Also, be sure to check out the DaimlerChrysler safety and technology campaign, hitting twelve European cities in the coming weeks, where you'll be able to witness firsthand the safety that only Mercedes' coaches can deliver.






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The world's safest touring coach: the Mercedes-Benz "Safety Coach"

• New safety systems for buses and coaches actively help to prevent accidents
  
  
• An important step towards realising the vision of accident-free driving
  

Stuttgart/Hockenheim, Jul 07, 2006
DaimlerChrysler presented the Mercedes-Benz Safety Coach to a group of international bus and coach experts from 18 European countries gathered at the Hockenheimring training area in late June 2006. The vehicle, which those in the know are calling "the world's safest touring coach", is based on the new-generation Mercedes-Benz Travego and has already gone on sale. It incorporates all the previously used safety technology as well as the Lane Assistant and proximity control systems, both of which are available for buses and coaches for the very first time.

The Lane Assistant warns the driver in plenty of time if there is a danger of the vehicle departing from its lane. Proximity control, meanwhile, maintains a safe distance between the bus or coach and the vehicle in front. Considering the bumper-to-bumper traffic faced by bus and coach drivers on motorways, for example, it is easy to see how useful such a system can be in helping to prevent rear-end collisions. New features include mirror systems with a "reversing pilot", a reversing camera and Litronic xenon headlamps. When operated in unison with recently introduced safety features such as the Electronic Stability Program (ESP), Continuous Braking Limiter, electronically-controlled braking system (EBS) and such like, these systems prove effective at helping to prevent accidents involving buses and coaches. Buses and coaches may be the safest means of transport of all, but the large number of passengers on board, and the potentially high number of casualties, means that bus and coach accidents often hit the headlines. The new safety technology on board brings buses and coaches a further major step closer to realising the vision of accident-free driving.

The Mercedes-Benz Safety Coach is part of a current campaign led by Daimler-Chrysler, which targets politicians, the public, the transport industry and insurance companies, and is aimed at promoting more widespread use of safety systems and technology in commercial vehicles. This is why the Mercedes-Benz Safety Truck will be visiting twelve European countries in the coming weeks, to impressively highlight the efficiency of the latest safety systems through a series of driving demonstrations. This initiative sees DaimlerChrysler lending its support to the European Union's "Road Safety Charter" project which aims to halve the number of road deaths in Europe between 2000 and 2010.

Copyright © 2006, DaimlerChrysler AG