Volpe Center: Rindge School of Technical Arts students design train evacuation

Rindge School of Technical Arts students design train evacuation

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According to an article in the March 11, 1999 Cambridge Chronicle, the pre-engineering students at the Rindge School of Technical Arts in Cambridge recently were given a challenge by the Volpe Center's Dick Chutter: to design, model, and test an emergency exit that will provide an improved method of unattended evacuation of rail passenger coaches.

The students were given a copy of the Washington Post's account of the September 23, 1993 Amtrak accident in which 40 people died, a list of constraints, and a design brief that asked them to developed improved methods for unattended evacuations.

The students worked with their teacher, Roy Carter, for a month to design and build the model that they presented to Dick and their fellow classmates in February.

Dick is a Cambridge School volunteer who has been involved at the Rindge School of Technical Arts for the past semester.

"We are appreciative of him, his time, patience, and leadership," said Alif Muhammed, executive director of the Rindge School of Technical Arts. "His project brought a real world challenge to our students."

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