Guardrail Terminals
In 30 years guardrails have killed & incapacitated more than 90,000 people.
Blunt End
This guardrail has no terminal, only a blunt end piece of steel to pierce the car and kill
the occupants. This terminal penetrated the car Judy Bird was a passenger in and
decapitated her. They had to take 16 feet of guardrail with the car, because it had
penetrated the car and was sticking out the rear window . Are we still killing people the
way they did in the days of the Roman empire? Are we a civilized society or not? A 10 year
old could have done a better job of engineering than this if you call this engineering.
Kill and Incapacitating rate is 60-80%
Turndown
This terminal was turned down into the ground to prevent spearing but causes many smaller
cars to roll over. Rollovers are the most severe type of roadside crashes. Although
rollovers occur in only 15% of roadside crashes, they are responsible for more than 25
percent of all roadside fatalities. Nearly 75% of all rollovers occur on rural two-lane
roads that have limited right-of-way and were designed to meet older, less demanding
standards. Kill and Incapacitating rate of turndown is 15-20%
BCT
The BCT is called a boxing glove and has a round front. This terminal has turned out to
have a kill and incapacitating rate of 15-20% also.
MELT
The melt is a glorified BCT and has been redesigned and tested several times. It has
finally passed the last crash test but under questionable soil conditions. This terminal
should not be allowed by the FHWA. It should be illegal to use at this
time, unless the FHWA has approved it. Kill rate unknown!!! The kill rate will be much
higher than the ET-2000.
Slotted Rail Terminal:
This terminal is similar to the BCT and has slots in the rail to make
it perform better. It has been approved for use on the highways but we
think the ET-2000 is a much better and safer choice. Colorado has
adopted the SRT and we would hope they would switch to the ET-2000. We
will get pictures for the web soon. Kansas has adopted the ET-2000 for
their standard but are now installing several SRT terminals. We think
that all states should only install roadside safety hardware that is higher
than their standard.
ET-2000 type
This terminal is an attenuating terminal and is very effective. There are some different
modifications. When hit this terminal flattens the W-beam rail and shoots it away from the
car and driver. Kill and incapacitating rate close to 0%. We have heard of accidents at
75mph and the driver has walked away.
Concrete and Wire Barrier in Median
There have been several people killed on highways with no median
barrier. We have been told that the concrete barrier on the turnpike
in Kansas saves around 15 lives per year. Three young adults were
just killed on I-70 in Missouri after being run off the road into oncoming
traffic. Chances are a median barrier would have saved their
lives. Please write your congress person and tell them you want
median barriers on all the roads.
Rumble Strips
Rumble strips have been shown to reduce crashes up to 70%, yet many states do not install
rumble strips. There was a crash recently at I-435 and Roe in Overland Park, KS where rumble strips
would most likely have saved John and Sara’s lives.
Rumble strips are a cheap way to save lives. One Secretary of Transportation told
us that people do not run off the road in metropolitan areas. It
is too bad John and Sara above are not around to answer this comment. Maybe someday we will have leaders that understand
what it is like to lose loved ones with substandard engineering.
Roadside Drop off Kills
The maximum legal drop off from the shoulder of the road is 6 inches down and 12 inches
out from the edge of shoulder. If there is too large a drop off on the shoulder it makes
almost impossible for the vehicle to recover.
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Poor Design Kills (Still exists on
Dec.17, 1998)
Some states are installing guardrails that do not meet any standards. We have seen
bullnose guardrails installed in 1997 on the NHS that do not meet any standards. Example
69 highway in Overland Park, KS. (see picture) The bullnose above has steel I-beams and
will not cushion the crash. A crash on this bullnose could create more that 20 G's of
force on the occupants of a vehicle. We anticipate these guardrails will kill or injure
several people. There are attenuating bullnose terminals available, why are the states
installing substandard bullnose terminals? Do the engineers care about the people? The FHWA has been informed that these guardrails do not meet any standards
and they have not made KDOT remove them. We have asked for
proof that these terminals have passed current crash test standards and have received
nothing. In our opinion these installations are not legal. KDOT needs
to put a concrete barrier down the middle of this road to keep cars from crossing over and
get rid of the bullnose terminals that are installed now. KDOT
and FHWA we beg you not to kill or injure anyone on these substandard bullnose
terminals. 9/3/98 1/15/98 the guardrails are still
up and no hazard markers. We have a letter into Mr. Gieger and Mr. Alba with the
FHWA and when we get their response we will post it.(It has been about 3 weeks so should
have their response any day now) Lets hope they respond before anyone gets hurt on
them. Update: We were told today by the FHWA that this was KDOT's design at
the time. We were told that they have now changed the design to meet current
standards. We didn't get anything to show that they had passed the crash test
standards when they were installed. In our opinion these guardrails would not pass
any crash test. When they send us the crash tests we will let you know.
Safety Alert!!!! It is
now Dec.17,1998 and the FHWA has still not made KDOT remove the illegal bullnose
installations above. When we get ice on the road someone will most likely get hurt
or killed on these bad installations. The FHWA was notified while these bullnose
were under construction and they did nothing to stop the installations.
150 highway in Overland Park, Leawood, & Olathe, KS.
The law says that they must have a breakaway light post, yet they are planting large trees
in front of the posts. A 3-4 inch tree can kill the occupants in the vehicle. We have
written the three cities telling them they were going to kill someone and they install
large trees anyway. I guess the main thing is to have a pretty road and to heck with the
people. As of 9/3/98 they are still planting more trees on
several city roads.
Hole marker on Ironhorse Golf Course in Leawood, KS.
They have installed very heavy
stones with only a couple of small stones behind them to hold it. We notified the city of
Leawood, Ks that these could fall and kill or injure children playing on them.
