Scania’s priority is to prevent accidents by giving drivers the best possible solutions in terms of:

• Vehicle control and handling
• Brake performance
• Working environment   

We protect drivers with both active and passive safety measures, and we aim to provide the finest driver station available in terms of impact safety and control quality.
Active safety is all about making the driving of a bus or coach as safe as possible. Active safety centres on giving the driver better feedback and control. Key areas of interest for the new buses and coaches are handling, braking and stability. Passive safety encompasses aspects of design aimed at minimising potentially dangerous consequences arising from a collision – consequences that may affect the driver and the occupants of other vehicles.

Innovation and function in the new driver station
Our new driver station offers many advantages that improve safety comfort, economy and control. Unique features like pendant pedals use the correct leg muscles to make driving safer and more comfortable. A new pneumatically controlled adjustable steering wheel locks easily into position.

Improved handling:

• Enhancements in the steering and chassis provide exceptionally responsive feel and handling.
• Scania Retarder can be programmed to automatically maintain a slightly higher downhill speed then the set cruise control speed, to achieve safer, higher average speeds on mountainous routes.
• Push-button controls for the Scania Retarder are mounted on the steering wheel.
• Scania Opticruise has been enhanced to provide even better driving and better interaction with other vehicle systems such as the Scania Retarder.
• Opticruise controls are mounted on the steering column, for fast and easy finger-tip access.      

Braking enhancements:

• EBS (electronic brake system) is now available on all models. Our new EBS features brake blending where wheel brakes interact with the Scania Retarder and exhaust brake. EBS also provides continuous monitoring of brake pad wear, to give even wear and enable more cost-effective preventive maintenance.   

Good road-handling characteristics together with stability ensure that the driver can rely on the vehicle at all times and make correct decisions in every situation.

Since the driver may be responsible for more than 100 passengers it’s of the utmost importance to engineer our bus chassis to provide complete vehicle control, with a sense of consistent response and predictable vehicle behaviour.  We make certain that all our vehicles offer good manoeuvrability at low speeds and good directional stability at high speeds. In order to obtain these objectives, our chassis components are carefully selected and tuned in order to fit each customer application.  

ESP (Electronic Stability Program)
This advanced optional system is designed to minimise the risk of skidding or rollover resulting from driver error, sudden emergencies or unexpected hazardous road surfaces. The objective is to help the driver regain full control as soon as possible in difficult conditions.

Directional Stability
When a bus or coach is driven over the road it’s exposed to various disturbances, such as crosswinds and uneven surfaces that affect the path of the vehicle. This can lead to fatigue in cases where the driver needs to continually compensate. That’s why we engineer our buses and coaches to provide the driver with accurate feedback and an agile and predictable response to driver inputs. We achieve this with a steering system that provides excellent sensitivity and an optimised chassis setting. In addition, Scania is taking part in a research effort to better address issues of directional stability during larger disturbances and thus further improve the crosswind stability of future buses and coaches.