All vehicle restraint devices on European roads are – or should be – certified to the European impact standard EN 1317, which means conformity. But it does not necessarily guarantee that the crash barrier will achieve its main goal of saving the lives of the vehicle’s occupants.
This is particularly the case for front barriers, such as crash cushions and terminals. The so-called capacitive crash test performed with the heaviest vehicles is a frontal test at 110 km/h using a 1,500 kg vehicle. The collision of this one-and-a-half-ton car with the obstacle generates about 701 kilojoules of kinetic energy.
But in reality, there is a big difference between the vehicles used in EN 1317 certification tests and those circulating on European roads. There are more and more sport utility vehicles – SUVs – weighing more than 2,000 kg on European roads.
United States versus Europe
The situation in the United States is different from that in Europe. According to the American standard NCHRP 350 and its latest edition, called MASH (Manual for Evaluation of Safety Devices), the performance of crash pads and terminals must be evaluated using a pickup truck weighing more than 2,000 kg. Attention is also paid to the balance of the load during the collision, which may lead to the collided vehicle overturning.
Currently, EU member states and some neighboring countries including Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Russia and Israel use EN 1317. But in many countries, this discrepancy between vehicles required for crash tests and road vehicles has led to the exclusion of pads and terminals being tested in accordance with to European standards. These countries include the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, and even Australia and New Zealand. Other countries in Africa are also deciding which standard to use, whether it is the American or the European standard.
The problem is also a market issue for system manufacturers in Europe. The Americans pushed for approval of the NCHRP standard – and now MASH – because the test vehicle is heavier and more “dangerous” in the event of an accident. This is the logic of assuming that NCHRP 350 products are safer than EN 1317 products. The proliferation of SUVs and pickup trucks on highways around the world, including Africa and Asia, has helped favor American crash pads over European ones. Therefore, European products are less competitive than American products.
It is recognized that NCHRP/MASH products are considered non-compliant in Europe and only CE marked products can be installed within the EU. However, so far, CEN (Committee European for Standardization), an association that brings together national standardization agencies from 34 European countries, does not face the problem of old compounds used as test vehicles in Europe.
Speed certificate
Another worrying aspect is that crash tests on crash pads result in the device being certified for use at four vehicle speeds: 50 km/h, 80 km/h, 100 km/h, and the maximum speed of 110 km/h. However, the speed limit on the vast majority of Europe’s major motorways and highways is often actually 130 kilometers per hour.
Therefore, it is worth asking whether EN 1317 compliant crash barriers are actually safe.
It is also important to highlight that EN 1317, while certifying crashworthiness, does not specify criteria for barrier installation along the road. Installation regulations are left to national administrative bodies. If there are European regulations focusing on installation, they may provide additional guarantees for the safety and reliability of the performance of the barriers.
We suggest that occupant safety is ensured by PRR compliant devices – performance robustness and redundancy.
The more robust the device, the more effectively it responds to impacts, according to dynamics that are not now considered in impact tests. For example, this could be a collision at 130 kilometers per hour or at an impact angle greater than 20 degrees.
In terms of redundancy, crash tests are performed under carefully considered conditions that will demonstrate the optimal performance of the system. However, once installed along the way, there may be many variable conditions under which the barrier must perform and it must do so repeatedly.
Furthermore, the EN 1317 standard does not require the assessment of injuries to vehicle occupants, even though these devices are intended to save lives. In fact, European and American standards for evaluating vehicle restraint systems do not require crash testing of the system using an on-board dummy, despite the existence of such sophisticated devices.
Puppets are useful
For example, there is a dummy used by EuroNCAP (European New Car Assessment Programme) to evaluate the safety of vehicle occupants during frontal accidents. It analyzes head, spine and chest injuries. However, this tool is not required to evaluate compliance with EN 137, NCHRP 350 or MASH 2016 standards. This void in the assessment can be easily filled using the EuroNCAP dummy.
Moreover, it should be noted that the American standards of NCHRP and MASH do not take into account the assessment of injuries sustained by vehicle occupants. When can we confirm that the device complies with the PRR rule? When a car’s occupants live to tell the tale and these ads are more worthy than any certificate of compliance.
A very useful tool for analyzing the behavior of road-mounted crash pads is an impact monitoring system that includes some ability to record the incident on video. SMA Road Safety already has such a system, called Geronimo. It is supplied with a crash pad and is operated by a sensor mounted on the fender.
Most importantly, Geronimo records not only the behavior of the barrier, but also the dynamics of the accident from the moment of impact. Furthermore, Geronimo alerts emergency services in real time about an accident – something extremely important when not just minutes but seconds can save lives.
Crash monitoring systems such as Geronimo – a solution 100% made in Italy – can ensure the safety of vehicle occupants at a time when the European standard EN 1317 seems outdated and ineffective.
SMA Road Safety is an Italian global manufacturer of safety barriers, headquartered in Marsianese. Aside from manufacturing the Geronimo system, SMA also manufactures the Leonidas shock pad, compliant with European EN 1317 and American NCHRP 350 standards.
