Importance of vehicle structure and geometry on the performance of roadside safety features.

In real-world collisions with traffic rails and other roadside safety structures, a successful outcome is dependent on the structural and geometric properties of both the impacting vehicle and the roadside structure. This paper provides examples of crash tests and real world accidents in which poor interaction between the vehicles and traffic barrier were the principal cause of failure. There is a need for barrier designers and vehicle designers to better understand each other's methodologies such that protection of the motoring public is maximised.