Articles Tagged with Guardrail

motorcycle

Motorcycles compose about 2% of the vehicles on the road but yet account for 42% of all fatalities involving collisions with guardrails.

When it comes to collisions involving guardrails, motorcycle riders sustain a significantly higher rate of fatality than auto occupants involved in a collision with a guardrail.  Multiple studies on this subject have produced similarly uneven results. What makes this finding so alarming is that motorcycles compose only about 2% of the vehicles on the road in the U.S. but yet account for 42% of all fatalities involving collisions with guardrails. Fatalities are occurring in guardrail vs. motorcycle collisions despite the fact that more than two-thirds of the motorcyclists involved were using a helmet at the time of the impact. The fatality risk for a collision involving a guardrail is nearly 80 times higher for motorcyclists compared to their car occupant counterparts. This high fatality rate is not unique to the United States alone but countries throughout Europe also have statistics that mirror this terribly skewed risk rate with motorcycle collisions involving guardrails.

Guardrails are found on roads and are designed to keep vehicles from traveling into an area more dangerous than the road. They often deflect the vehicle back into the road, which makes the vehicle prone to collision with traffic, either oncoming traffic or traffic going the same way as the vehicle.

Motorists generally trust that the guardrail will protect them from serious harm. This may be true but the height of a guardrail appropriate for a sedan may cause a rollover accident in a light truck or a motorcyclist might just slip under the barrier, rendering it useless in protecting the rider.

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