Fancy that!

**slofox** · 20th December 2008, 04:34

Seems you need high powered research to discover the obvious........

"Crash barriers pose high risk to bikers

Lives could be saved if crash barriers were made motorcycle-friendly according to research by the Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

The research found that crash barriers are life savers for car drivers but can kill motorcyclists; in a collision they are 15 times more likely to be killed than a car occupant.

The report is particularly critical of crash barrier support posts that can cause injuries five times more severe than in an average motorcycle crash.

A spokesperson for motorcycle breakdown provider, the ETA said: “Motorcyclists represent a small proportion of all motorists so they are often overlooked when it comes to road design, with devastating consequences.”

France has recently retro-fitted lower rails to prevent riders hitting support posts on parts of its road network."

**mowgli** · 20th December 2008, 04:53

Originally Posted by slofox

Crash barriers pose high risk to bikers

What? No way! They're making it up.

PT

**Owl** · 20th December 2008, 09:18

Duh!

**spookytooth** · 20th December 2008, 09:45

Yep some ppl get payed well to come up with what every one else knows

**paturoa** · 20th December 2008, 10:17

interesting reading

http://www.iam.org.uk/

or

http://www.iam.org.uk/pressroom/news...IAM+report.htm

**Road Guardian** · 20th December 2008, 11:38

Here is hoping the govt/ltnz realise this sooner rather than later, and acts just like French.

That way less deaths, and less ACC levies! Yea for all

**Road Guardian** · 20th December 2008, 11:40

Dam, I have just realized that the govt doesn't have any money to fix our roads any more.

Oh well, we will have to wait until we are out of this "recession".

**slofox** · 20th December 2008, 11:45

Originally Posted by Road Guardian

Dam, I have just realized that the govt doesn't have any money to fix our roads any more.

Oh well, we will have to wait until we are out of this "recession".

NO! In a recession roads get built! All unemployed people get drafted into chain gangs and build roads with manual labour.....(machines too expensive to run y'see.....). Maybe they will fix the barriers.......and maybe not....

**slofox** · 20th December 2008, 11:47

Originally Posted by slofox

" .......an average motorcycle crash."

What the f**k is an "average" motorcycle crash?...The mind boggles....

**Reido** · 21st December 2008, 09:16

Originally Posted by slofox

What the f**k is an "average" motorcycle crash?...The mind boggles....

something between a 1kmph drop and a 240mph high side?

**robboh** · 23rd December 2008, 00:08

I dont know how true it is, but I heard it mentioned that those wire+pole barriers they have put up on SH1 around MereMere arent actually allowed to be used in Europe, purely because of the damage they do to motorcyclists.

**James Deuce** · 23rd December 2008, 06:33

Can I direct your attention to a couple of sticky threads in a forum everyone should visit?

Forum: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=85

Thread 1: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=59539

Thread 2: http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...ad.php?t=62450

The "government" is never going to"realise" anything unless we tell them. They have continued to follow Transit's line that there is no research to suggest that WRBs pose any more risk to motorcyclists than any other vehicle despite a KBer who died on Auckland's Southern motorway in October 2007 after an unusual motorcycle event.

His Dad, Welsh Wizard on KB, has been very helpful with all the research he has done, and continues to call for a moratorium on their installation while research that has led to WRBs being clad in plastic to present a solid obstacle to motorcyclists in a few European countries is at least considered by the NZ Government. No luck yet, but then as I have said before, your life is worth precisely nothing on a NZ road.

Having been knocked off twice in the same spot on Wellington's motorway by trucks and only suffering a broken wrist in one of those accidents, I can attest to the fact that sliding along the road and gently fetching up against a concrete barrier is infinitely preferable to getting tangled up in a WRB and ripped to bits. At 70 km/hr or more you are 100% likely to suffer a dismemberment and there is a 70% chance of death if you hit a WRB.

70 km/hr.

Despite that factoid being unearthed in a series of studies that is slowly leading to a review and moratoria of WRBs in the EU and some Australian states, the NZ Government and its agencies insist that WRBs present no special dangers to motorcyclists and there is no International research that they have seen to suggest that they do.

The concrete industry is on our side for purely commercial reasons. A concrete barrier is minimally more expensive to install than a WRB. Hoever it is vastly more expensive to maintain. One of the "reasons" given for their installation is that a WRB can be stepped down or even moved in an emergency. Well not in NZ. It needs specialist gear and trained personnel and we have neither of those. The concrete barriers at the site of the Dowse Interchange have been moved about, reconfigured and reused, simply by chucking a couple of straps around them and using a hydraulic hoist to shift them where they need to go. Some of those concrete barriers are more than 30 years old. Scarred, but still in service. A WRB would have needed total replacement TWICE in that period. An extra million per km at installation for concrete and you've saved the taxpayer 100s of millions in capital costs and disruption. From personal experience you give motorcyclists at least a 66% chance of surviving with minimal injuries if you hit one obliquely. I haven't had the third accident yet you see.