How is this possible?

[Parrot of Doom]

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/231/231095_dad_and_daughter_fight_for_lives_after_mway_plunge.html

This happened just a couple of miles from my house. I remember it because I was returning home from a wedding and the road was blocked off by the police.

Heres where it happened:

where the M60 crosses the road, on a bridge

Now unless the barrier was faulty, how on earth could something as innocuous as a medium sized passenger vehicle get through an armco?

If you look carefully you can see the long-grassed over and disused former slip roads that became redundant when the Carrington Bypass opened. But the article says the car came through the barrier, and hit the wall that holds the bridge up?

I'm baffled.

[chrisgr31]

Similar thing happened on the M25/A2 junction not that long ago. Barrier gave way and vehicle ended up on the carriage way below. Suppose it depends on whether the barrier was installed/maintained correctly, and the angle it was hit at.

[justinp1]

I watched an astonishing programme a few years ago about the risk/cost factor.

One example was the american motor companies in the fifties and seatbelts. The preciding factor on when to decide to fit seatbelts to cars was the date when the annual cost of lawsuits against the company was greater than the cost of fitting the seatbelts themselves.

It is a similar situation on our roads. I seem to remember that the standard motorway crash barrier is designed to behave like an elastic band and keep you in the cariageway. As such it is designed to reflect a normal sized passenger car at 70mph at an angle of attack of 15%.

There are two better systems but due to their cost they are reserved for 'critical' areas like sheer drops and bridges.

It is shocking however that a medium sized car can crash through even that!