# SUV Impaled on Guardrail



## Dleg (Oct 3, 2010)

Maybe this is old news to the highway engineers, but I just saw this as a new item on Snopes:

SUV Impaled on Guardrail

Any analysis from the highway folks? Should this have happened?


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## TXCoogPE (Oct 4, 2010)

Those look like pics from a scene in a guardrail demonstation video I had to watch once. The video showed all sorts of cases of vehicles crashing into the different types of guardrails. The one that stuck in my mind the most was seeing a cable rail slicing through the vehicle when it impacted.


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## ALBin517 (Oct 4, 2010)

Dleg said:


> Maybe this is old news to the highway engineers, but I just saw this as a new item on Snopes:
> SUV Impaled on Guardrail
> 
> Any analysis from the highway folks? Should this have happened?



One of my transportation profs at Florida State did research on guardrails - exactly this type of thing.

The general rule of guardrail design is that they should be "imperfect columns." A perfect column is extremely strong in compression. An imperfect column - like a water bottle with ridges on the outside - is very easy to crush. That is why a lot of guardrails flare in a curve, away from the roadway, or have a similar imperfection on the end.


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## Road Guy (Oct 4, 2010)

only thing I can think of is that either the anchor wasnt installed correctly or that some of the bolts broke off, it shouldnt do that, especially to an SUV


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## MA_PE (Oct 4, 2010)

I'm not a transpo guy, but it makes sense to me that the rail shape and being of a thin crossection like that should buckle under a compressive load and not be stiff enough to go through the engine bay and into the interior without collapsing first. This was a fluke circumstance.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Oct 4, 2010)

> a thin crossection like that should buckle under a compressive load and not be stiff enough to go through the engine bay and into the interior without collapsing first.


Save that kind of talk for PPI!


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## NCcarguy (Oct 5, 2010)

I would think the end treatment was previously damaged and left something other than what was intended for this driver to hit. A properly installed end treatment can't do this.


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## Supe (Oct 5, 2010)

Why does the guardrail start in the middle of the highway, and why is it only on one side of the road?


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## snickerd3 (Oct 5, 2010)

ouch


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## Dleg (Oct 5, 2010)

Amazing the guy wasn't hurt, huh? I love the description in the article, how they found him wandering around the area of the crash "like a ghost".


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## TXCoogPE (Oct 6, 2010)

Supe said:


> Why does the guardrail start in the middle of the highway, and why is it only on one side of the road?


Since that crash occurred in Montana, the guardrail could of been put up to protect the traffic from a sharp side slope. According to MT's design requirements, any side slope that is steeper than 3:1 has to have guardrail designed for that area. (At least that was the requirement in 2006). With how mountainous that terrain is, there are times when it was hard to design a slope at 3:1 or flatter.


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