Two Norwegian firms have come up with a new design in road signs and lampposts they claim will radically reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries sustained in collisions.Working out of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology the two firms have developed lampposts and traffic signs which give way when cars collide with them.
The first masts to be mass produced will be in a lower safety class - road signs, compared to the higher class which is not expected to be in production until next year. In a collision in the lower class mast, such as a road sign, cars will simply cut down the masts in a controlled fashion, allowing the vehicle to continue on its course.
Masts in the higher class, and with a higher energy-absorption coefficient, such as lampposts, will act like a safety net in the case of a collision. When a vehicle collides with the post, its foundations will not fracture, but the mast will wrap itself round the car, effectively stopping it as if it were braking. The car is likely to sustain considerable damage, but the driver and passengers will not be injured.
Mr Håvar Ilstad, a researcher with one of the firms, SINTEF, has been working on the concept of yielding masts since 2001, and initially tested the masts using computer simulations and simple laboratory trials. "The mast can quite simply tell whether it has been hit by a car, or is being stressed in other ways," claims Mr Ilstad. "By analysing the various phases of a collision and designing the components thereafter, we get the loads and deformations in each individual phase under control."
Following intensive testing over the course of the summer involving collisions at speeds of between 35 kph and 100 kph, the results are being studied by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, and approval for test use on public roads is expected next month.
By the beginning of next year, SINTEF and Euromast Ltd hope to be exporting the product to other Scandanavian countries, with European countries - including Ireland - targeted for the middle of next year.
"Our masts and signposts are simple and cheap to produce, since they consist of standard components and will be produced in accordance with a range of international classes with different energy-absorption requirements," Mr Lars Holstad, director of Euromast Ltd (Norway), told Motors. "It will take some years before old poles have been changed with new safer poles. But the introduction of safer poles will result in a significant drop in the casualty rate in years to come."
Despite concern within the EU over road safety issues, neither SINTEF nor Euromast - which is headquartered in the Netherlands - received any funding from the European Union.
However, both companies hope that when the masts go into production, current EU legislation that insists member countries adopt the most "user friendly" elements available on the European market will allow for the marketing of the new masts at national levels across the EU.