Unbreakable Windows and Bad Idea Jeans

England's Rail Safety and Standards Board pulled on their bad idea jeans and created new safety standards that would require operators to install unbreakable glass in the passenger cars of trains. The decision was made following a study of seven crashes over the past decade during which 12 people had died after being thrown through windows during the crash sequence. These new unbreakable glass windows, made of laminated glass, would be able to withstand a beating from a sledgehammer. No one gets thrown out a window, and everyone is happy.

But what these studies didn't show was the number of people that survived because they could break the glass and climb out the windows.

However, the Rail and Safety Standards Board felt that allowing windows to be used as alternate escape routes wasn't worth the risk. Instead, they ordered train companies to draft emergency procedures which would require that passengers line up in an orderly fashion and wait to file out of the carriage's ends. Nevermind if your carriage is filling with smoke. Nevermind if one or both of the ends is blocked by debris or fire. Nevermind that all hell has broken loose. I guess the Rail Safety Standards board never did a case study of the Station Nightclub fire of 2003, during which 100 people were either burned or trampled to death.

Word of advice: The next time you go to the UK, don't travel by train.