Cheescutter fails to stop car

**avgas** · 7th February 2008, 15:07

Originally Posted by twotyred

surely it wouldn't have happened had the barrier been concrete...

I reckon, imagine the damage though if it was 2 lines of 3.5mm thick yellow paint on the road?
Just remember - when it comes to barriers, something is better than nothing.

**yungatart** · 7th February 2008, 15:08

Originally Posted by avgas

I reckon, imagine the damage though if it was 2 lines of 3.5mm thick yellow paint on the road?
Just remember - when it comes to barriers, something is better than nothing.

Tell that to the families who have lost loved ones to a cheesecutter.

**Pex Adams** · 7th February 2008, 15:21

The wire barrier will is only designed to stop cages that hits them side on, doing less then 100km (because thats the fastest anyone actually travels in this country

), so when you have a cages that hits it head on, isn't doing a 100km, or your NOT a cage then they are actually very very fucken USELESS!!!!

We should all just stop paying our registration and say that my money isn't actually going towards making my life any safer

**Blue Velvet** · 7th February 2008, 15:25

Originally Posted by sunhuntin

which direction were the two impacted cars heading in? what about the one that jumped the barrier.

The cheesecutter on Haywards Hill is on the Hutt side. The two cars overtaking the truck must have been going up the hill from the Hutt, towards Pauatahanui, as there is an overtaking lane. The car that crossed the barrier towards the Hutt.

**swbarnett** · 7th February 2008, 15:37

Originally Posted by avgas

I reckon, imagine the damage though if it was 2 lines of 3.5mm thick yellow paint on the road?

Probably less. From what I've read it sounds like the cars that got damaged would've been further away form the offending vehicle if it hadn't been slowed by the barrier (assuming it was slowed at all).

**Ixion** · 7th February 2008, 16:09

Originally Posted by avgas

I reckon, imagine the damage though if it was 2 lines of 3.5mm thick yellow paint on the road?
Just remember - when it comes to barriers, something is better than nothing.

Well, in that case the damage might well have been zero.

The car itself didn't hit anything. It was the bits busted off it by the barrier and sent flying that hit.

So, quite likely, with no barrier, the car still wouldn't have hit anything , would have passed through, as it did, to the bank on the far side. No flying debris from hitting the barrier nothing gets damaged, except, obviously, the car that hits the bank.

"Something is better than nothing " is ONLY true if the centre crossing vehicle is going to hit something. More likely than not it misses, even if the other traffic takes no avoidance action.

Barrier enthusiats would have you believe that a vehicle crossing the centre line ALWAYS hits oncoming traffic. Which is a palpable falsehood.

Oncoming traffic in just the wrong place to be hit will only *sometimes* be there. The barrier is *always* there.

**carver** · 7th February 2008, 16:16

Originally Posted by twotyred

This morning on the way to work, a car coming down the Haywards hill rode along the barrier and over it passing across two on coming lanes to rest against the upside hill.
Debris from the car and barrier hit the two lead cars that were over taking a truck going up the hill with the airborne bumper of the crashing car hitting the windscreen of the first car.
If they had been bikes.....

It was a miracle nobody was killed

surely it wouldn't have happened had the barrier been concrete...

concrete is too expensive

**twotyred** · 7th February 2008, 16:18

Originally Posted by Pex Adams

The wire barrier will is only designed to stop cages that hits them side on, doing less then 100km (because thats the fastest anyone actually travels in this country

), so when you have a cages that hits it head on, isn't doing a 100km, or your NOT a cage then they are actually very very fucken USELESS!!!!

This was far from a head on,the car hit on a sweeping bend although the decreasing altitude of the road at that point may have allowed it to mount the barrier.At this stage I don't know hoiw fast it was going but unlikely to be doing over 100k as the hill is very busy both directions at that time of day.

Just to clarify: I didn't witness this but drove through about 5-10 mins after it happened and saw a fellow workmate stopped there,it was from him I learnt the details as he was behind the two cars that overtook the truck.

I will try to grill him for more details tommorrow if I can.

**WelshWizard** · 7th February 2008, 19:26

Originally Posted by avgas

I reckon, imagine the damage though if it was 2 lines of 3.5mm thick yellow paint on the road?
Just remember - when it comes to barriers, something is better than nothing.

Only damage to the car that crossed, no WRB no bits fkying at the oncoming cars,

Has any one noticed these happenings with WRBs are getting more and more common, the faster they put them up the faster we are hearing of their failings, LTNZ can't keep burying their head in the sand much longer, to many countries have already acknowledged the failings and are either banning them outright or modifing them to protect all road user.

Even the States has had at least two cars go through these WRBs in the last 6 months the last time three teenage girls in a Mazda went straight under them, Result three dead Girls, who knows how they died.

**WelshWizard** · 7th February 2008, 19:37

More info on the Haywards Hill crash here
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdeta...storyID=126560

http://www.topix.com/nz/haywards/200...d-on-collision
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdeta...storyID=127869
not sure if all three are related, but seems to be all Haywards hill

**YellowDog** · 7th February 2008, 19:51

That is an amazing story and a nasty cover up.

The thought of being struck by airbourne debris is something thta has always scared me.

**Hitcher** · 7th February 2008, 19:51

This morning's accident completely supports my hypothesis about long stretches of curved cheesecutter being completely useless for meeting Transit's nonsense claim about its "effectiveness" in preventing cars crossing the centre line, particularly when impacted on a convex apex. Wire, posts, car and all will cross largely unimpeded into the paths of oncoming vehicles. The Haywards "barrier" is close to 1km long. There are single spans of cheesecutter on Centennial Highway in excess of 1.5km.

Cheesecutter is largely a psychological barrier designed for the smug satisfaction of incompetent roading "engineers".

Any twats who publicly announce that SH53 is the most dangerous road in the Wellington region have absolutely no credibility whatsoever. But they're the ones whose opinions count. Go figure. Their pitiful utterances shall be unrelentlessly pursued and challenged.

Was anybody able to get photos of the aftermath of this morning's effort on SH58?

**Coyote** · 7th February 2008, 20:09

Originally Posted by avgas

I reckon, imagine the damage though if it was 2 lines of 3.5mm thick yellow paint on the road?
Just remember - when it comes to barriers, something is better than nothing.

If people continue saying that then the government will opt for the slightly cheaper and less effective option. If they're going to put a barrier up, they should put one in that works and not be wasting money on something that doesn't.

You're right, but bowing down like that is just going to let more incidences like this happen.

Originally Posted by Hitcher

Cheesecutter is largely a psychological barrier designed for the smug satisfaction of incompetent roading "engineers".

It's a PR exercise and band-aid for dodgy roads, in one!

**twotyred** · 7th February 2008, 21:26

Originally Posted by Hitcher

Was anybody able to get photos of the aftermath of this morning's effort on SH58?

see my post earlier today: I went back to take pics at 11.00am and the scene had been scrubbed... barrier completely repaired,not a trace of anything embarassing for the official version...