Predicting occupant risk indicators for frontal impacts with redirective crash cushions

Crash cushions are devices deployed on the road network in order to shield fixed roadside hazards and the non-crashworthy ends of road safety barriers. However crash cushions vary in terms of configuration and operation, meaning that different devices may also vary in terms of ability to mitigate occupant risk. In this study, data derived from crash testing of eleven redirective crash cushions is used as the base input to a numerical procedure for calculation of occupant risk indicators Occupant Impact Velocity (OIV), Occupant Ridedown Acceleration (ORA) and longitudinal Acceleration Severity Index (ASI) for a range of simulated impacting vehicles (mass 800 kg to 2,500 kg) impacting each crash cushion at a range of impact speeds (18 m/s to 32 m/s). The results may be interpreted as demonstrating firstly that enhanced knowledge of the performance of a device over a range of impact conditions, i.e., beyond the crash testing, may assist in determining the crash cushion most suited to a particular application; secondly that a more appropriate conformance test for occupant risk would be a frontal impact by a small (light) vehicle travelling parallel to and aligned with the centreline of the crash cushion; and thirdly that current documented numerical procedures for calculating occupant risk indicators may require review.

In-service evaluation of the BRAKEMASTER and C-A-T crash cushions. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

Delineation of concrete safety-shaped barriers and urban freeway gore area crash cushions. Final report.

Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, Transportation Planning Division, Austin

Delineation of urban freeway gore area crash cushions. Interim report.

Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, Transportation Planning Division, Austin

Appendix to report - summary of the results of crash tests performed on the Connecticut Impact Attenuation System (CIAS).

Mode of access: Internet.

Summary of the results of crash tests performed on the Connecticut Impact Attenuation System (CIAS). Interim report.

Mode of access: Internet.

Development of a metal tube crash cushion for narrow hazard highway sites. Final report.

Connecticut Department of Transportation, Wethersfield

Development and experimental evaluation of a steel tube vehicle impact attenuation system. Final report.

Connecticut Department of Transportation, Bureau of Planning and Research, Wethersfield

Performance of highway safety devices. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

Scale model study of low-density concrete impact attenuators. Final report.

Ohio Department of Transportation, Columbus

Performance of a tire-sand inertial barrier system in Connecticut. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Washington, D.C.

Impact attenuators - a current engineering evaluation. Final report - executive summmary.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Research and Development, Washington, D.C.

An energy-absorbing frangible-tube bridge barrier system. Final report.

Mode of access: Internet.

Roadside concrete barriers: warrants and end treatment. Final report.

Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, Transportation Planning Division, Austin

Bwembya Chikolwa interviewed by Nicole Lindsay for Herald Sun 20th August 2009, Property trusts hit hard by US crash,

Listed Australian property companies wrote off more than $8.5 billlion from their ill-fated US investment adventures during this reporting season.