Iowa roads are safer thanks to new barriers designed here in the Midwest. Dr. Dean Sicking is director of the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility which created the Midwest Guardrail System. He says the problem with highway guardrails built up to now is that they were designed to handle accidents involving passenger cars. Automobiles are lower and lighter than many other vehicles on the road today, and Sicking says when guardrails are hit by SUV’s and pickups, vehicles with a higher center of gravity, they tend to roll over more often and to go right through the barrier because of their greater weight. The new design incorporates structural changes that he says have already proven their worth. He says raising up the guardrail helped accomodate higher vehicles and they’ve changed where splices are located and other details that added to the capacity of the barrier. Sicking says testing shows it’s not only 70-percent safer than older roadside barriers, this design virtually eliminates rollovers for SUV’s and pickups. There’s an 11-state Regional Pooled Fund Program, and Iowa’s among them, so Dr. Sicking says this is “your tax dollars in action.” It’s becoming a standard in quite a few states, and though California was the first he’s heard from many states making the barrier system their standard guardrail design for all their highways. The center’s work has also produced safer construction barriers, bridge railings, and even safer barriers along racetrack walls. The safety facility is funded by several regional states with the goal of improving safety both on the road and in what it calls “ran-off-road crashes.”

Related web sites:
Midwest Raodside Safety Facility