Abstract:
The role of roadside safety barriers in motorcyclist trauma has been an area of concern among motorcyclists, road authorities, road safety researchers, and advocates despite the number of barrier-related deaths being relatively small. Roadside barriers include safety barriers positioned either at road edges or within medians and are typically steel W-beam, concrete, or wire-rope. As a result, a major research project focusing on motorcycle crashes into roadside barriers in both Australia and New Zealand was started in 2008. This project is now in its final stages at Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research (formerly the IRMRC) at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. The results presented in this paper focus on impacts into barrier posts. Presented are extracts from reports and papers already published by the authors elsewhere and listed in the references. The project was funded by a consortium comprised of three road authorities, a third-party injury compulsory insurance authority, and an Australian motoring safety consumer group.
