At the request of a working group of the ministry of transport the Dutch institute for road safety research SWOV has carried out a small number of tests to determine the efficiency of protective devices for roadside obstacles. In particular a reasonable alternative for the fitch inertial barrier was sought. A series of alternative safety drums were tested. Materials used were polyethene, pertinax and pvc-plast. It was shown that the efficiency of the drums was greater in proportion as they were more completely disintegrated. As the vehicle-deceleration becomes less, the vehicle will have less tendency to be raised and the drums will not be thrown into the road. The deceleration was still too great with the drums tested and therefore further research is needed.
Samenvatting