A railway vehicle has, located centrally on the end of a car body 1, a coupling device and at least one shock absorbing device 9, 10, which has a permanently deformable support element. To achieve an effective protection against under-running in an impact the, individual shock absorbing elements 9, 10 are parallel to one another underneath a horizontal plane that contains a coupling device 4.

For relieving the impact force of a collision and insuring passenger safety by building an easily destructible structure into a railroad car underframe, two transversally extending cross or end sills 21, 23 are disposed in parallel and longitudinally spaced apart relation at the front end of a railroad car underframe 1 and energy absorbing sills 61 adapted to absorb shock energy by undergoing wall buckling when subjected to a shock load exceeding a predetermined value from the front of the car is disposed between the cross beams.

An energy absorber device for use in vehicles, in particular railroad vehicles, is of generally parallelepipedal shape and can be inserted between a driver's cab and a coach-body. The larger opposite faces of the parallelepiped are disposed in a plane formed by the rear face of the driver's cab and in a plane formed by the front face of the coach-body, respectively.

A train collision attenuator mounted on a leading end of a train for attenuating the force of impact between a moving train and a pedestrian or motor vehicle. The train collision attenuator includes an energy absorbing assembly and a mounting assembly. The energy absorbing assembly includes a leading surface and the energy absorbing assembly is dimensioned and configured for attenuating the force of impact between the moving train and the pedestrian located in the path of the moving train as the pedestrian impacts against the leading surface. The mounting assembly secures the energy absorbing assembly to the leading end of the train. A lifting mechanism for moving the energy absorbing assembly between a deployed position to a retracted position is also provided. A selectively-inflatable, externally-mounted airbag including an upper pedestrian cushioning portion and a lower pedestrian support portion is also provided. An energy absorbing hydraulic cylinder and a vehicle contact plate mounted on the hydraulic cylinder piston is also provided.

A rail vehicle having an end provided with a driver's cab, said vehicle having a rigid frame extending under said driver's cab, said rail vehicle having a protective shield disposed in front of said driver's cab and provided with a rigid structure, said protective shield resting on said frame and being connected to said frame via at least one energy-absorbing element interposed locally between the shield and the frame.