Protection by Roadside Barriers May Have Been Factor in Three Area Fatalities
Very little information has been provided with respect to three persons who are deceased following two collisions in Southwestern Ontario. Both collisions may have components related to the protection provided by roadside barriers.
It was reported that on Christmas Day, a vehicle travelled into a body of water and came to rest upside down. Such a report is a classic case of drowning though no information has been provided whether that is the case. The lack of proper barriers to protect the public from bodies of water adjacent to roads and highways is a safety problem that is rarely discussed. In this instance it needs to be identified whether a barrier was warranted for the location where the vehicle left the roadway. The public needs to be informed of the critical dangers that exist when a vehicle enters a body of water and that in many cases they can be trapped even though their speed and the collision severity itself may be quite low.
The public needs to be informed of the dangers posed by bodies of water located adjacent to roadways and how their protection is being taken into account.
A second fatal collision occurred this morning, December 26th. it was reported that a vehicle “struck a bridge barrier” on Southminster Bourne just north of Highway 401, just southwest of London, Ontario. Given the shortness of time no information has been made available and the roadway is reportedly closed to public traffic at this time. It remains unclear what is meant by a “bridge barrier”. This is not a term that can inform the public as to what type of roadside structure was involved. There are number of structures on Southminster Bourne that could fit that description including a number of installations of ET-Plus terminals that have had a history of complaints with respect to their involvement in crashes. In the past the reporting of previous collisions involving various roadside structures have not been sufficient to enable the public to understand whether some structure has performed as it should or whether something needs to be corrected.
This Google Maps view shows Southminster Bourne looking east toward Hwy 401. This fatal collision reportedly occurred somewhere on this north side of Hwy 401 but the description is not specific enough to know what kind of “bridge barrier” was struck.
Given the short time since these two fatal collisions occurred time is needed to allow police and the official news agencies to consider what information they will provide however there must be a recognition that a proper reporting of the facts that do not mislead the public is essential.
Merry Christmas to All, From the Tall to the Small
Let us all feel the enlightenment of children, like Mr. Scrooge and Mr. Grinche. That we have the capacity to bring good to our world if we allow a change to take place within us. Vengeance, anger, disrespect and intolerance are the four horsemen that have ridden across our paths too much of late. Let Empathy, love, understanding and respect for others carry you through into the New Year and beyond.
Merry Christmas to all, may we all see the light.
School Buses Catch Fire But Little Concern Because They Were Parked
A “malfunction with the electrical wiring” was blamed for the start of fire which destroyed several parked school buses in New Minas Nova Scotia on Saturday morning, December 22, 2018. The photo below shows the extent of the blaze.
This Facebook posted photo by Matthew Eager shows a row of school buses on fire near New Minas Nova Scotia.
This single phrase, a “malfunction with the electrical wiring”, would seem to have satisfied everyone involved such that no post-incident strategy was discussed in the CBC News article about the incident. Maybe it was because the buses were parked and there was no one inside them that made the incident appear of minor importance. But if the fire occurred when the bus was loaded with child passengers would that suddenly become a very important issue?
The point is that many vehicle fires occur, often with little consequence as the occupants of the vehicle are able to escape. But that can sometimes be a matter of luck. If for some reason occupants are not able to escape a burning vehicle the consequences could be deadly.
While the cause of a fire may be accurately identified to a specific fault, sometimes a generality such as a “malfunction” means that the investigators have located a point of origin but the specific cause may be unknown. This becomes more likely when vehicles become ever more sophisticated in their electronic components. How various modules and other electronics components function is increasing being claimed as proprietary information that is only known by the manufacturers. Even government agents who are supposed to be monitoring various safety issues are sometimes clueless about an increasing complexity and secrecy in automotive systems. Sometimes they have to appear to demonstrate that they have matters under control while actually they may be handcuffed in terms of being given sufficient information from manufacturers. It is a problem that is unlikely to go away soon. And it is problem is that is likely to become greater.
The outcomes of fires will not always be favourable. Whenever they occur it is an opportunity to document them thoroughly before the next outcome becomes much more tragic.
Kenessarie Road Location Added To List of Videotaping Locations Along Highway 401
On December 19, 2018 Gorski Consulting completed another videotaping session along Highway 401 at the Kenessarie Road site just east of Chatham Ontario. This now completes four sites that have been videotaped this fall. The site locations are shown in the figure below.
A fifth site was videotaped on November 15, 2016 at the Elgin Road interchange, however the procedures were not fully developed especially with respect to using cameras mounted on the overpass of Elgin Road. We have now developed a procedure which is able to document a wide range of traffic motions.
Cameras have consistently been set up at 100 metre intervals, commencing from the reference overpass, at zero, 100, 200, 300 and 400 metres respectively. These views point directly across the highway and they document the precise time when a vehicle passes a reference cone placed at the edge of the shoulder. Other cameras are typically placed at 420 and 320 metres pointing diagonally across the travel lanes such that we can observe the relative positions of vehicles in the right and median lanes. We also mount two video cameras on the overpass to look directly along the length of the highway. Finally cameras are sometimes positioned at 100 and 200 metres past the overpass to provide further documentation of vehicle positions. The figure below provides an example of the view taken from one of the cameras mounted on the overpass of one of the sites.
The figure below shows another view from the Kenesserie Road site where the line of cameras and reference cones are visible along the north side of the westbound lanes of Highway 401.
View from the overpass at Kenesserie Road showing the line of video cameras and cones placed along the north roadside of the westbound lanes of the highway.
As always Gorski Consulting is considerate of the privacy of individuals travelling along this public highway. As such we purposely adjust our GoPro video cameras to a low resolution such that details such as license plates and the identity of persons in the vehicles cannot be deciphered. All we are interested in is knowing basic facts such as the size of the vehicle (car, SUV, heavy truck, etc.), what motions those vehicles have conducted and at what speed. Unfortunately some large trucks contain various advertising along their sides which cannot be wiped from the video. However during documenting of those vehicles in a spreadsheet we do not refer to their specific identity but only by a general description such as “White tractor with a white semi-trailer”.
We understand it is important that all persons who conduct any surveying need to be considerate of other persons’ privacy especially in this developing age when technology can become unacceptably intrusive into our private lives. Yet it is also important that research be conducted that may improve the transportation safety of the public.
As with previous videos the content will be examined and reported in a future series of news items on the Gorski Consulting website. It is hoped that this data will be of help to the general public in understanding the general character of the traffic on this super-highway and thus enable that public to voice informed opinions as to how we can make this important transportation artery as economically safe as possible.
Reporting of Highway 401 Median Crossover Collisions Needs More Clarity
The installation of a High Tension Cable Median Barrier (HTCMB) in the 118 kilometre distance of Highway 401 between Tilbury and London Ontario has been controversial in that some groups have been lobbying for the installation of a concrete, Jersey-type barrier as exists along the rest of the super-highway throughout southern Ontario. The reporting on the latest truck collision that resulted in a median crossover is lacking in the clarity that is needed to properly inform the public on the performance of the cable barrier.
In an article by Laura Broadley of the St. Thomas Times-Journal newspaper the title read “Cable barriers stop transport truck from crashing through Highway 401 median”. The incident involved a westbound tanker truck carrying “flammable fluids” that passed through the median, struck the cable barrier and came to as stop partly in the north shoulder and partly in the eastbound passing lane of the highway just east of Downie Road. The only photo available of the incident is shown below. Red circles were inserted by Gorski Consulting from a previously posted discussion.
OPP photo with red circles highlighting points of interest.
The cable barrier was likely helpful in redirecting this tanker truck and may have prevented collisions with eastbound traffic. However the newspaper title indicating that the cable barrier stopped the truck from crashing through the barrier is obviously incorrect. The cable barrier was located only on the far (south) side of the median and therefore the truck made first contact with the barrier after it had already passed through the median.
Furthermore it was mentioned that two eastbound vehicles sustained “minor” damage from “colliding with debris from the truck and tension cables”. It is important to understand that even small debris can be dangerous when high speeds are involved. An eastbound vehicle travelling at 100 km/h striking a piece of small debris moving in the opposite direction at 50 km/h means that this debris could be striking that eastbound vehicle at a closing speed of 150 km/h. Debris that is small and/or narrow can make contact in a small location where the force may be focused in that small zone thus increasing the possibility that it might pierce through the structure of a vehicle. (The analogy of spear penetrating a warrior’s armour is not a bad example). This is particularly true of an impact to a windshield. Thus it is very important to explain what debris made contact and where that contact occurred on the eastbound vehicles. These details may appear trite until an incident occurs where someone is badly injured or killed.
Further analogies come from many years of examining head-on collisions where seemingly small and harmless objects have been stored on the back parcel shelf of a passenger vehicle. This parcel shelf is the flat area located under the rear window. A typical example is the installation of an after-market audio speaker which often contains a small but solid magnet. Unsuspecting drivers do not understand that in a major frontal impact such an after-market speaker can become dislodged and can come flying at the head of an occupant and cause a serious head injury. This is not a comment made without experience but comes from years of study of occupant injuries with the University of Western Ontario Multi-Disciplinary Accident Research Team in London.
It is important to document such details of a collision not only because it explains what happened in this single case. It is important because the findings from such collisions will be used in the future by policy-makers in their decisions about what installations will work best. The reason why the current cable barrier was chosen for installation is because of previous studies conducted in Europe and North America where it is assumed that the reporters of those findings made properly detailed documentations of the relevant consequences. The experience documented along Highway 401 will also be used by policy-makers in other parts of the world. Thus it is a important matter to report these incidents properly.
You must be logged in to post a comment.