Citation

Alberson DC, Williams WF, Menges WL, Haug RR. Accid. Reconstr. J. 2007; 17(2): 50-57.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Accident Reconstruction Journal)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) uses the Jersey safety-shaped barrier extensively on highways today. A number of the designs from prior years have minimal reinforcement and when the current design procedure is used to evaluate the respective designs, the analysis indicates marginal performance may be anticipated when impacted by an errant vehicle. Therefore, FDOT elected to perform a full-scale crash test of the most critical design deployed in the field. This paper describes the background, objectives, study approach, and results of this FDOT research project, which ultimately demonstrated that the Florida bridge rail contained and redirected the single-unit truck used in the crash test. The truck did not penetrate, underride, or override the installation. Minimal movement of the bridge was noted during the test with no permanent deformation.