The overlaps of the successive armco panels are very important and is directional to the travel of the vehicles ( on the lane nearest the barrier)marekk wrote:Link to full video: http://www.onet.tv/pelna-symulacja-wypa ... ,klip.html#
No details about ARMCO's construction, except that the new one is (obviously) better and they are going to successively replace older ones.
The end of each panel must lap the start of the next panel on the road side of the barrier .
This makes the RK crash rather a sad one , even if the Armco's were installed with the overlaps done correctly . The road he was on was clearly a two-way public road, in Italy where driving is on the right side - he hit the armco on the left ( oncoming ) side , which was against the traffic direction and hence the armco overlap was against his direction .
So if the armco is hit between overlaps , that armco will be pushed back leaving the end of the next armco quite exposed and ready to enter a vehicle - This is my take on why the armco entered the car head on
In the case where a gap is needed ( to gain access to a side road/entrance to a property etc) the ends of the armco at the barrier must have a rounded return so as not to present an exposed armco end .
We had a fatal accident here at Killarney race track a few years ago during a official practice day - an armco gate was left open ( needed for a drag event the next evening , which used the gate as access to the return loop) The driver spun and hit the open end of the armco at 90 degrees , on the driver's side door- full, comprehensive roll cage and side impact bars - this prevented the end of the armco ( two panels high) from entering the car but the side impact bend far enough inwards to squash and seriously injure the driver . He succumbed despite fully equiped medical team available, having resuscitated him 3 times . This accident happened some 75 yards past the ambulance station, so the ambulance was on the scene in less than 30 secs
