Over one third of all serious injuries and fatalities on New South Wales roads occur as a result of single vehicle crashes. Approximately 30 fatalities a year involve collisions with man made devices such as safety barriers, and other barriers designed to protect road users from other natural hazards. One road safety engineering approach to reduce the road toll and minimise vehicle occupant injury in road casualties is the provision of safer road furniture. In the past five years, the RTA has conducted a number of road furniture tests with the aim of developing and improving the crashworthiness of road infrastructure. These road furniture tests have enabled the delivery of a number of safer road furniture. Testing enabled the development of a safer RTA pedestrian fence design, the validation of a lower cost alternative design to the Modified Eccentric Loading Terminal (MELT), and the validation of computer simulation results of a RTA frangible sign structure design. In September 2003, the RTA conducted the world’s first Wire Rope Safety Barrier (WRSB) crash test on a 200m radius curve. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E211985.
Abstract