Wire Safety Barriers - Look what they do to low cars!

[xbgs351]

If it wasn't for the roll cage I hate to think what would have happened to the driver. He would have been decapitated at the minimum.

[sfr rob]

well, thats what you get when your driving a car made of fiber glass and your sitting that low in the damn thing.
Those wire barriers have saved MANY lives on the M1 here in Melbourne already.

[Falcon Coupe]

I have never been a fan of them, replace the car with a motorcycle... :

It all comes down to money i guess.

[paule11]

That would have been terrifying have you got any before pictures of the corvette?
Does anyone know how fast it was going when it hit

[Walkinshaw]

for 4wheeled vehicles they are a FAR better barrier restraint than armco etc, however, yes our 2 wheeled friends....well ouch.

[sfr rob]

Originally Posted by Falcon Coupe

I have never been a fan of them, replace the car with a motorcycle... :

It all comes down to money i guess.

yeah, ouch!

[troppobob]

The location of this crash appears to be on the competitin stage of Targa Tas. known as the Sidlings and is between Scotsdale and St Helens in NE Tas. It would be reasonable to assume the driver was going as hard as he dared and from the skidmarks he knew he was in trouble and locked up the front right about 30yds before the off. There is also quite a bit of rubber on the insde of the bend on the apex which indicates other competitors went through pretty quick. In this instance the wire barriers along here are usefull to stop wayward vehicles going over big drops and into the trees and are the lesser of the evils.

[Elks]

Cheap & effective in normal situations. They have stopped many a car crossing in oncoming traffic in Melb. (Or did the speed cameras do that)

Dont go there in an MG or similar and for motorcyclists well they are just a shredder.

[xbgs351]

My mate and I came across this accident on one of the stages of this years Targa Tasmania. I can't remember the stages name, but it was over towards the West of the state. I seem to recall that it was the same stage that Eric Bana crashed. A shock absorber on the Corvette had failed, which lead to the crash.

What really got me was how close the occupants of the car came to getting chopped into pieces. The top wire passed right over the bonnet and the second wire passed over the motor. There are plenty of other cars around in Australia that have just as low of a bonnet as a Corvette, but don't have a roll cage to stop the wire. Just think what might happen to the occupants of sports cars such as an MX5 in a similar sort of accident.

[xbgs351]

Originally Posted by paule11

That would have been terrifying have you got any before pictures of the corvette?
Does anyone know how fast it was going when it hit

[AC/DC]

I think I would prefer that than the 400m drop ......

AC/DC

[prydey]

its not a money saving device, its a safety issue and far better than a solid crash barrier. had there been a guard rail instead none of the energy of the impact would've been absorbed by the railing and the occupants of the car may not have been able to get out and walk around.

the liklihood of decapitation looks pretty slim to me as the 'a' pillar is untouched. road cars are not made of carbon fibre so cannot really draw comparisons.

as for motorbikes, wouldn't matter what barrier was there if your going off its going to hurt.

[xbgs351]

Originally Posted by prydey

its not a money saving device, its a safety issue and far better than a solid crash barrier. had there been a guard rail instead none of the energy of the impact would've been absorbed by the railing and the occupants of the car may not have been able to get out and walk around.

the liklihood of decapitation looks pretty slim to me as the 'a' pillar is untouched. road cars are not made of carbon fibre so cannot really draw comparisons.

as for motorbikes, wouldn't matter what barrier was there if your going off its going to hurt.

The A-pillar didn't look untouched to me. The wire pushed the glass up against the roll cage. The lower wire also looked to have cut all the way through to the roll cage.

[myxr6]

They are not called the cheese cutter for nothing.

[ClevlndStemer]

honestly i don't think they're meant for race conditions or anything more than normal commuting traffic.

[Rodp]

A big gum tree looks like the alternative and man vs gum tree is a one sided competition. So what should have been there instead of a wire rail? They seem to absorb impact a lot better than a solid rail and a 2 wheeler would have been screwed either way.

[Auslandau]

By the pics I think its proof that they work! Solid barrier could have bounced off or over, no barrier would've said "bye bye". Agree, not good for MC's but there are plenty of others things to worry about for bikers.



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[XR Martin]

Steel guard rails both absorb and deflect a vehicles energy. If you look at the angle of him hitting the wire, on a conventional gaurd rail he would have glanced off it with only minor damage. Instead it got cut to pieces.

[Rodp]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Steel guard rails both absorb and deflect a vehicles energy. If you look at the angle of him hitting the wire, on a conventional gaurd rail he would have glanced off it with only minor damage. Instead it got cut to pieces.

Then it all depends on the angle of impact. Consider the car glanced off the guard rail and then uncontrollably headed for the other side of the road into oncoming traffic...?

[Elks]

Originally Posted by prydey

as for motorbikes, wouldn't matter what barrier was there if your going off its going to hurt.

You're abosolutey right.

The thrill of motorcycling.....:newangel:

[BTTB]

http://mraa.org.au/forum/modules/iss....php?pagenum=7

[ebxr8240]

Originally Posted by XR6 Martin

Steel guard rails both absorb and deflect a vehicles energy. If you look at the angle of him hitting the wire, on a conventional gaurd rail he would have glanced off it with only minor damage. Instead it got cut to pieces.

I think P.B would be alive if there was one of these on the outside of the corner he lost control...

[woodsy109]

They are trialing plastic guard rails in Victoria at the moment I think on roads that are in high use by motorcycles.

Hopefully something like this is a better solution for both car and motorcycle drivers.

[matt-chops]

Bottom left of the last picture... is that the spring from the car!?

[Keepleft]

The barrier shown is not Brifen or Flexfence (Each has differing technical design and characteristics, one brand it is argued has much less cable seperation potential), anyhow, seems a 'local' job done to replace old chainlink fencing you can see in the pics.

I'll find out who and where.

What the agency has done, it appears, is to use traditional guardrail support columns and seemingly has 'copied' the concept as guardrail/chamlink replacement.

I'd bet, without particular crash testing. We'll see.

[BeStRaFe]

the wire rails are designed to take the impact and distribute the impact across all the poles in the formation and not have one point of weakness.

i can proclaim to their reliability. i was hit and spun at over 100,
i slammed into one of those and i walked away without a scratch but the car has some nice grinds down the side,

however the impact would have been MUCH WORSE against a concrete or a steel rail barrier

[outback_ute]

Good pick-up Keepleft - definitely not your standard wire rope barrier, so I don't think you can really say this sort of thing would happen with the "proper" ones

[Pedro]

Originally Posted by prydey

its not a money saving device, its a safety issue and far better than a solid crash barrier. had there been a guard rail instead none of the energy of the impact would've been absorbed by the railing and the occupants of the car may not have been able to get out and walk around. ....

First you mention solid crash barrier and then you move to guard rail and claim none of the energy would have been absorbed.

I don't know to what guard rail you refer but Armco guard rails do absorb energy and have been proven to do so.

The wire fence in the picture seems to be some cheap Tasmanian solution I've never seen before. If the situation arose, I'd certainly prefer to hit an Armco barrier than that wire mangler.

[Sprint347]

i think this proves why fibreglass panels arent legal here in WA

[mcnews]

Originally Posted by sfr rob

Those wire barriers have saved MANY lives on the M1 here in Melbourne already.

YOu honestly believe that?