Another goddam psycho semidriver liquidates a boatload of people 3788

Doug

Doug, you are correct. The guardrails should be there to protect the errant drivers. I don't know the evolution of the existing guard rails. But so many guardrails that I see look like they were designed to protect the culvert or bridge columns, drivers be damned. Many of the guardrails remind me of the steering columns of the 57 Chevy. Sort of like a spear aimed at the unwary.

Length of rail establihed by posted speed instead of observed speed, no other visual guides to keep drivers in their lanes on curves, no reflectors, similar details missing, just a glob of metal to protect the road. Gaurdrail begins AFTER the curve, etc. Poor design it seems to me. Or the type of vehicles or the use of vehicles (higher speed) have made the design obsolete.

Should roads be designed to protect speeders? should roads be designed to protect other drivers from speeders?

If this crash is reported by NTSB, I wonder what comments will be made about the reported opening in the rail? Most likely some type of dedicated program to replace the poorly designed guardrails. But will the redesigns include other factors to reduce the probability of crash into the guardrail?

Poorly designed not in the sense of not meeting a standard when they were installed, but poorly designed in that they no longer match the use conditions.

The "Jersey barriers" used to have a double or triple angle face, so an offending vehicle would be forced up the face and then parallel. You may have noticed skid marks on that design. But I see designs where there is no curve at the bottom. I'm not sure how a vehicle would react to those if struck at a shallow angle. The design was changed several times. Partly in reaction to size of cars.

Scott Kozel has written about concrete barriers and has pictures at:

Coupled with the barriers is the design of the curbs. Crubs used to be designed so it was difficult to leave the roadway and easy to get back on. There was a steep side to the curb on the road side and a gentle slope to the back side. Now I see curbs which make it easy to get off the road and difficult to get back on. I wonder if the workers got the form backwards and the inspector OKayed it without checking the job sheet. Or if water flow and clean up is easier with the shallow angle on the road side?

One standing joke when barriers were being cast in place during reconstruction of the DC beltway. The barriers were in place for about a quarter of a mile. They were poured ahead of the work and as the work was completed, a jackhammer crew demolished the barriers at the completed section. Work was proceding so quickly that the forecast was that the jackhammer crew would be attacking the cement truck as it poured the barriers.