Concrete central reservations...A danger to older cars??

[attym3]

As I travel around the country I see more and more metal barrier central reservations being replaced by the concrete type.
I thought the metal type were designed to flex and soak up the impact if you unfortunatly ended up making contact.
Weather these new concrete type are designed for new cars with crumple zones etc.
My old e24 635csi obviously has none of that, so what is going to give? Namely the soft fleshy thing behind the wheel?!?!

[AndrewW-G]

It may help if you try your best not to hit them in the first place

HTH

[HellDiver]

The concrete barriers are designed to keep the crash on one side of the road. Nothing else.

[TonyHetherington]

You'll not hid them head on though - you'll glance.

[MrLou]

HellDiver said:

The barriers are designed to keep the crash on one side of the road. Nothing else.

EFA

Concrete barriers are thought to do better job of it than the older ones.

[MrLou]

TonyHetherington said:

You'll not hid them head on though - you'll glance.

Depends on what happens, doesn't it?

I've seen an accident where a vehicle veered left from L2, over-corrected to the right and went more or less straight into the central barrier. This is exactly the sort of situation where a vehicle might go through, or over, the barrier.

Less likely with concrete.

[Dog Star]

There's an additional bonus with some of them - they block the headlights of stuff on the opposite carriageway, especially if you're in a low car. Result!

Lot safer for bikers too in a glancing impact - won't snap off extremeties.

I think the head-on crash disadvantage is outweighed by the advantages.

[grahamr88]

MrLou said:

TonyHetherington said:

You'll not hid them head on though - you'll glance.

Depends on what happens, doesn't it?

I've seen an accident where a vehicle veered left from L2, over-corrected to the right and went more or less straight into the central barrier. This is exactly the sort of situation where a vehicle might go through, or over, the barrier.

Less likely with concrete.

Even in that situation, most of your momentum will still be parallel to the barrier. I'd rather hit a concrete barrier that way than Armco, and on a bike they're much safer, the posts holding Armco up could easily get an arm or leg caught on them...

[MKnight702]

Don't tell the H&S NuLabia brigade, they'll see this as a reason to outlaw classic cars. Fully supported by the vehicle manufacturers, of course, in a completely unbiased manner.

[MrLou]

grahamr88 said:

MrLou said:

TonyHetherington said:

You'll not hid them head on though - you'll glance.

Depends on what happens, doesn't it?

I've seen an accident where a vehicle veered left from L2, over-corrected to the right and went more or less straight into the central barrier. This is exactly the sort of situation where a vehicle might go through, or over, the barrier.

Less likely with concrete.

Even in that situation, most of your momentum will still be parallel to the barrier. I'd rather hit a concrete barrier that way than Armco, and on a bike they're much safer, the posts holding Armco up could easily get an arm or leg caught on them...

Agreed. All I was saying is that head-ons do happen, and in that case concrete is probably better for everyone.

[SystemParanoia]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5caOZm5dcjA

concrete gets my vote

[Corsair7]

Buy a new cer if your that worried about it suddenly throwing you headlong into the central reservation.


Another plus part of concrete reservations is they dont get damaged by the impact (apart from a few scratches) and therefore the lane doesnt need closing for repairs.

Also, lorries cant get over them, unlike the metal ones.

[Thudd]

When I was hit on the motorway, it pushed the front of my car under the barrier, and the loose bumper was tagging oncoming "fast lane" traffic, as it flapped about.
This would prevent that.

However, I don't fancy getting pinned to the concrete by an artic.

[R360]

SystemParanoia said:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5caOZm5dcjA

concrete gets my vote

fking hell thats scary.
There were 2 cars overtaking the red lorry both of them must have got crushed in between the yellow lorry and red lorry, any survivors?
Interesting watching it again you see the yellow van snaking around a lot over correcting then finally tipping over and sliding into what looks like a lamp post.
What was the cause of the lorry veering across the dual carriageway, blowout on the front left?

[Fastra]

MrLou said:

grahamr88 said:

MrLou said:

TonyHetherington said:

You'll not hid them head on though - you'll glance.

Depends on what happens, doesn't it?

I've seen an accident where a vehicle veered left from L2, over-corrected to the right and went more or less straight into the central barrier. This is exactly the sort of situation where a vehicle might go through, or over, the barrier.

Less likely with concrete.

Even in that situation, most of your momentum will still be parallel to the barrier. I'd rather hit a concrete barrier that way than Armco, and on a bike they're much safer, the posts holding Armco up could easily get an arm or leg caught on them...

Agreed. All I was saying is that head-ons do happen, and in that case concrete is probably better for everyone.

Pretty much like this:

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=669_1275516744

If the red car hadn't taken some speed off the black car then he would have hit the central res pretty much head on - although not at that great a speed. But even so I think I'd prefer the concrete version had I been on the other side.

[TomE]

Corsair7 said:

Another plus part of concrete reservations is they dont get damaged by the impact (apart from a few scratches) and therefore the lane doesnt need closing for repairs.

Very true, ongoing maintenance (such as grass cutting etc) isn’t required either, so there are less of those pesky roadworks which everyone seems to complain about.

Also regarding the point of them being designed for cars with crumple zones, they are actually designed to "gather" the axels of impacting vehicles first and then transfer lateral force's through them to the the other side of the vehicle whilst allowing the cage of the vehicle to rotate slightly and so reduce impact forces on the occupants. There was extensive design and testing to ensure the angle chosen was the most efficient at this and IIRC its about 8 degrees.

Lots more info here with videos of how they are slip formed (quite a clever and quick construction process really) if anyone is interested: http://www.concretebarrier.org.uk/

Edited by TomE on Friday 4th June 11:15

[TonyHetherington]

MrLou said:

grahamr88 said:

MrLou said:

TonyHetherington said:

You'll not hid them head on though - you'll glance.

Depends on what happens, doesn't it?

I've seen an accident where a vehicle veered left from L2, over-corrected to the right and went more or less straight into the central barrier. This is exactly the sort of situation where a vehicle might go through, or over, the barrier.

Less likely with concrete.

Even in that situation, most of your momentum will still be parallel to the barrier. I'd rather hit a concrete barrier that way than Armco, and on a bike they're much safer, the posts holding Armco up could easily get an arm or leg caught on them...

Agreed. All I was saying is that head-ons do happen, and in that case concrete is probably better for everyone.

Agreed with all of that :yeS:

That lorry crash is scary - it just carrys on going! Look how quickly it veers to the left. Jeeeesus!

[Fastra]

Good vid here too:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fD3UMhTWWw

The bus demo near the end is quite startling - the barrier just does not move!

Edited by Fastra on Friday 4th June 11:18

[8400rpm]

Traditional steel crash barrier on long sections is very costly and time consuming to install. Concrete is slipform, cheaper and easier and quicker. It's also inferior at preventing over turning, a pain in the arse to maintain, and some more stuff. (I work in a highways design team/am a highways engineer etc.)

[TomE]

8400rpm said:

(I work in a highways design team/am a highways engineer etc.)

You'll soon learn not to shout about it too much on here...