Safety of Crash Barriers treated as a priority

These are the front page News Items. Only Club members can add news items to this forum.
Locked
Eamonn Townsend

Safety of Crash Barriers treated as a priority

Post by Eamonn Townsend »

Safety of Crash Barriers treated as a priority by the European Union

At FEMA's request, the European Parliament (EP) adopted in a resolution on the "Priorities in EU road safety", a point on the importance of making crash barriers safer for motorcyclists.

FEMA was concerned that within this report, safety barriers were advocated as a way to improve road safety , with no mention of the danger they cause to motorcyclists. Crash barriers are the cause of 10 to 15 % of all fatal accidents of motorcycle riders in Europe, and also cause very severe injuries. FEMA reckons that crash barriers can be a benefit in terms of road safety for a majority of road users, but wants the risk they cause to motorcyclists to be recognised and some emphasis to be put on the existing secondary safety measures to address those risks.

The text adopted in the Resolution is the following:"Whereas such a policy might require major investment to plan and build a safe traffic system; but whereas low-cost road engineering measures, such as safety barriers, may be implemented quickly and, like the production and promotion of EU technical guidelines based on best practices, may significantly improve traffic safety; whereas, however, the safety barriers must meet the specific safety requirements of motorcyclists".

FEMA has been working for many years now on this subject. A complete report on this topic is available on the internet at the following address : http://www.nmcu.org/forskning/fema_cbp/.This includes a complete statistical analysis, a list of devices to make barriers safe to motorcyclists, cost-effectiveness considerations, and constructive proposals for improving the situation.
Locked