Hwy 401 Woodstock Median Barrier Impact Causes Critical Injuries
A poor image taken from a frame of the OPP video of a car that struck the median barrier on Hwy 401 near Hwy 59.
The Ontario Provincial Police demonstrate a lack of understanding with respect to their role as the only entity that documents the critical evidence relating to serious and fatal motor or vehicle collisions. When deaths occur their role cannot be isolated to preservation of evidence that is never revealed to the public. In fact, it is the public that ultimately must decide how deaths need to be dealt with through the elected officials who should represent the public’s interests. If the public is ill-informed it cannot direct its elected representatives to change course, if the public believes that a change in course is required.
An example of the problem lies in an unusual collision that was reported on the OPP Twitter account involving a passenger car that was eastbound on Highway 401. Yesterday, September 3, 2019, the OPP reported that a collision had occurred when the driver of the eastbound car lost control of the vehicle and struck the median barrier near Highway 59, near Woodstock, Ontario. In an OPP video of the incident, Constable Ed Sanchuk reported that the car climbed the barrier and travelled on it for about 30 metres before sliding off into the south ditch. The 66-year-old driver reportedly sustained critical injuries and was “fighting for his life”. After introducing the general circumstances of the crash Constable Sanchuk’s focus changed to a reminder that drivers should not be taking photos of the site and stop their general “rubber-necking” as this endangers the lives of emergency personnel on the site. While this point is important it is also complicated.
As shown in the above frame taken from the OPP video, the only useful information provided by the OPP was the video showing the final rest position of the car. A similar quality of display could be obtained from the OPP video showing the location on the median barrier where the car made contact, shown below.
Frame taken from OPP video showing the area of the car’s impact with the concrete median barrier.
Both of these views were shot in a hurry and from a distance such that very little meaningful information could be derived. As this was supposed to be an Ontario High Wall barrier a car is not supposed to ride onto the top of it. But it did and this is an important point that the public needs to be made aware of. Yet it has been demonstrated in almost all previous occasions, that the OPP will not provide the public with the essential information that is needed to develop an informed understanding of why this unusual event occurred.
For the most part median barriers are designed and tested so that their presence reduces the severity of collisions. With respect to concrete median barriers, their height is such that they should prevent striking vehicles from passing through them into the opposing lanes of an expressway. Their design is such that they cause a striking vehicle to slide along its length and thus allowing a dissipation of kinetic energy in a controlled manner. And these barriers are designed with the belief that they will be struck at an acute (narrow) angle. This is a reasonable belief. On expressways where vehicles will generally be travelling above 100 km/h (above 28 metres every second) it is difficult for a vehicle to change it lateral position in any given distance and there vehicles exit the travel surface at relatively shallow angles.
As vehicles travel in a lane that is further away from the median, such as in the the third (slowest) lane of an expressway, there is a greater chance that a loss of control may direct a vehicle into a steeper angle of impact. Potentially this could increase the severity of the impact but it might also change the dynamics such that a vehicle could be propelled into an unexpected trajectory. Generally speaking controlled testing of these barriers is done up to a maximum of 25 degrees, but even so, there is only a limited number of such tests that can be done and there is less certainty of what may happen if a test is repeated hundreds of times under slight variations. The point is that the documentation of the results of real-life collisions is highly important because controlled testing cannot take into account all the possibilities of real life. And so this comes back to the importance of the police investigation.
When police do not provide the information to the public that is essential to their understanding of a critical event, the public will naturally attempt to gain that information. Thus this becomes the impetus for “scene photos” and “rubber-necking”. Human attention, vigilance and distraction are complicated matters. While such actions by drivers are dangerous they can be reduced if the OPP provide greater photographic details from their investigations. These photographic details have nothing to do with the conclusions that police or others may eventually draw from them. Such police action would likely reduce the demand for the unofficial photos that provide further information that police have failed to provide.
Some improvement in the transparency of the OPP at collision scenes has been observed in recent years. The on-site reports of OPP Sergeant Kerry Schmid have been uploaded on social media and this is helpful in the provision of video and photos along with explanations of substantially greater details. This is the type of openness that can educate and inform the public. Unfortunately there is a long road toward this type of openness with the rest of the OPP community.
Barrier Impacts Causing Rollovers of Large Vehicles
Whether you drive a heavy truck or bus, or happen to be a passenger, you are provided with essentially no warnings regarding your danger when your vehicle strikes a roadside barrier.
This frame was captured from an OPP Twitter video from a truck rollover on Highway 401 near McCowan Rd in Toronto on August 27, 2019.
As an example, a tractor-trailer struck the end of a concrete barrier on Highway 401 near McCowan Road on August 27, 2019, as shown in the above frame taken from OPP video. Scenes like these are commonplace and demonstrate the dangerous situation whenever a heavy truck or bus strikes an roadside barrier. These barriers are designed to interact with smaller passenger cars, light trucks and vans. Yet no guidance or warning is provided by anyone of an official capacity that such impacts cause rollovers and ultimately major injuries, and deaths. Catastrophic results can occur if a heavy truck is carrying dangerous cargo or if a bus is carrying multiple passengers. These are the filters placed on the public’s right to know.
Cause of Fatal Rollover on Highbury Ave North of London Ontario Should be Provided
Basic information about the cause of roadway fatalities is increasingly unavailable. Some of this may be related to the challenging financial situation most official, news-gathering organizations are faced with. As the public increasingly looks to social media for their communications and information the life of the professional news journalist appears to be taking a beating. Many unofficial accounts of fatal collisions can see observed in various social media posts provided by “witnesses”. Some of this information can be unique and helpful, while some is uninformed, biased and misleading. While police provide some basic information including some on-site photos, that cannot take the place of the professional journalist whose reports have been, historically, less unbiased, less prone to provide information for propaganda purposes and also provides more detail and investigative findings.
A fatal rollover collision on Highbury Ave just north of London, Ontario is an example of the problems that exist. Media reports indicated that a Ford Mustang rolled over into a ditch and a young female was ejected. While the collision was reported to occur near Bryanston and “at Fourteen Mile Road” that information was imprecise and there was no information about the travel direction of the vehicle.
A brief examination of the site by Gorski Consulting revealed that the Mustang was travelling northbound. It travelled into the east ditch a few hundred metres south of Fourteen Mile Road, or just south of the well-known Devises Cheese Factory location at Fourteen Mile Road. Upon entering the ditch the vehicle had been rotating counter-clockwise such that it was sliding sideways, leading with its right side, when its wheels and under-carriage dug into the earth which propelled it into the lateral rollover. Although no measurements were taken, the distance travelled during the rollover was substantial, indicating a relatively high speed.
The photo below shows a northward view along Highbury Ave looking toward the red building of the Devises Cheese factory at the Fourteen Mile Road intersection in the background. Our black vehicle can be seen parked on the west roadside adjacent to the area where the Mustang left the road surface. In the foreground there is a light-coloured scrape in the middle of the northbound lane.
View, looking north along Highbury toward its intersection with Fourteen Mile Road in the distant background.
The photo below shows a closer view of the scrape in the northbound lane. It’s light colour indicates that it is fresh. The scraping evidence within the mark indicates that the object that caused the marking was moving parallel to the roadway.
View looking closer at a fresh scrape in the surface of the northbound lane of Highbury Ave south of where the Mustang exited the road surface.
The photo below shows a close-up view of the parallel scrapes within the mark. Such evidence is not commonly related to rollover events. In this case there is no connection between this mark and the other collision evidence that is further to the north. Yet collision evidence does not explain why the northbound vehicle left the roadway and police have not provided any explanation.
Close-up view of the parallel markings within the scrape mark in the Highbury Ave northbound lane.
The collision evidence was located further to the north at the location of our parked vehicle. The photo below shows our parked vehicle on the west roadside. The tire marks from the Mustang entering the east gravel shoulder can be seen approximately opposite from the car’s parked position. Although this view is slightly out of focus, there is a faint, curved, black, tire mark in the foreground of the northbound lane which was likely caused by the Mustang before it left the road. That black tire mark is fully within the northbound lane and there is not evidence of the Mustang travelling into the opposing lane or onto any of the shoulders prior to its travel off the road.
The collision evidence begins to be visible on the east shoulder in the location next to the Gorski Consulting vehicle parked on the west roadside.
Thus this is uncommon since, in a majority of instances, a vehicle that is involved in a single-vehicle rollover is often involved in several motions, back and forth, as it slips into progressively greater clockwise and counter-clockwise “yawing” rotations that eventually lead to a final exit from a road surface. Such motions are often visible for several hundred metres before the actual location of exit from the road. But in the present case we just see the single tire mark in the northbound lane indicating that the vehicle left the road surface in an apparent, abrupt motion, without any evidence of the noted, yawing.
For completeness the two photos below show the evidence produced by the Mustang as it entered the east roadside and commenced its rollover.
View of the tire marks caused by the Mustang as it rotated, counter-clockwise into the east roadside.
View of the gouging of the east, grass roadside where the right side tires of the Mustang dug into the earth. The rollover commenced at the end of the tire marks in the background.
Given that seat-belt usage is very high, it needs to be explained why the female passenger of the Mustang was ejected from the vehicle. In some instances police will indicate that an ejection occurred even though the occupant was primarily within the vehicle but the upper body was exposed to the outside from such conditions as roof displacement. While such instances are not common they need to be revealed when they occur so that the occurrence of this undesirable outcome is properly exposed.
While further information may be revealed, it is unlikely that the public will be provided with a properly detailed explanation about how and why this collision occurred and whether the fatal injuries should be expected. Invariably the official comment that is delivered is that police “are still conducting their investigation” and the results of that investigation are never made public.
Through its taxes the public provides the funds for police to conduct their collision investigations. While the results of these data and reports are needed to develop the proper policies at government levels, that cannot be the sole reason for this activity. Presently the results of such police investigations never see the light of day, even when matters reach a criminal trial or civil litigation. While general comments are passed on by police about roadway safety, such propaganda rarely hits home as the public rarely appreciates that these comments have connections to real-life consequences.
Explosion After Vehicle “Slams” Into House In London Ontario
Questions need to be answered how an explosion occurred after a vehicle struck a house on the evening of August 14, 2019, on Woodman Ave in London, Ontario.
A Twitter photo showing emergency personnel at the Woodman Ave site of the explosion in London, Ontario.
Early reports indicate that a vehicle struck a gas meter of the struck house and this may have led to the explosion. It may be necessary to consider how vulnerable such meters are to vehicle impacts in general. Similarly a large truck may strike a larger gas installation or other facility that could create the potential for major consequences. Inquiries are needed.
Fire after Median Cross-over Double fatal on Hwy 401 at Dixie Rd in Toronto
Median barriers that are too low cause heavy vehicles to rollover and increase the severity of collision consequences. Such was the apparent case in a double-fatal collision that occurred on the eastbound Highway 401 at Dixie Road last evening, August 11, 2019. Preliminary comments by the OPP indicated that a Corvette was changing lanes when it made contact with a tractor-trailer. The driver of the tractor trailer lost control and struck a Mazda vehicle before rolling over top of the concrete median barrier and catching fire. A photograph showing the Mazda and Corvette was distributed by the OPP and is shown below.
This OPP twitter photo shows the Corvette and Mazda vehicles. It is reported that the driver of the Corvette and a passenger in the Mazda sustained fatal injuries.
One can expect that operations by emergency personnel will cause damage such as the removal of the roofs of the involved vehicles. Yet there is evidence of collision damage visible at the upper levels of both vehicles which is not consistent with typical emergency personnel procedures. While it is possible that rollover events could cause some of this upper level damage, the “tearing” characteristics of the sheet metal is not typical of rollover events. Thus it is quite likely that the substantial upper level damage to both vehicles is from interaction with the tractor-trailer. Large chunks of concrete lying in the background of the photo confirms that the tractor-trailer caused considerable damage to the concrete barrier during its rollover.
Whether the fatal injuries to the occupants of the two vehicles could have been prevented remains to be evaluated. However what is obvious is that the low height of the median barrier was inadequate for interaction with heavy vehicles. The GoogleMaps views of the area shown below indicate that the eastbound collector lanes of Hwy 401 are often filled with vehicles of a smaller mass. When heavy trucks and buses exist they are located primarily in the right lanes, away from the concrete barrier. While this may appear to be helpful it is not.
This GoogleMaps view of the eastbound collector lane of Highway 401 is taken from atop of the Dixie Road overpass. Most of the traffic is composed of light vehicles while some heavy truck was shown in the right lanes in the distant background. The struck median barrier can be seen along the left side of this view.
The low level of the concrete median barrier is shown here in this GoogleMaps view just east of Dixie Road. The cut-out of the barrier (to install a lamp standard) is not helpful as it increases the chances of the snagging of a striking vehicle at the cut out.
When an impact occurs with a heavy truck in the right lanes it will most likely involve a smaller vehicle such as the Corvette. As such the initial contact is unlikely to reduce the speed of the heavy truck but may cause it to go out of control. This is precisely what the OPP have indicated. However a heavy truck that is out of control in the far right lane and travelling at highway speed will approach the median barrier at a sharper angle that if it went out of control in the lane closest to the barrier. This sharper angle means that the barrier will need to provide greater redirection of the heavy truck than if the barrier was struck at a narrower angle. But when the barrier is too low that redirection cannot occur and the truck rolls over it, as it apparently did in the present collision. If the truck had remained upright it is quite likely that it might sustain minor sideswipe damage and coast to a stop along the barrier. However, with the scraping that would typically occur during the rollover along the top of the barrier this provides the igniting friction that could set off a fire. The results were that the truck caught fire but also the barrier was badly damaged. These consequences led to greater damage to the highway and a major disruption of traffic.
Although the concrete barrier on Highway 401 at Dixie Road is of an older vintage, its lack of adequate height is not unusual. Almost all “W” guard (guide) rails throughout most major expressways in the North America are too low. Consequently any large truck or bus that strikes these systems is in grave danger of rolling over.
This is particularly catastrophic when it involves an intercity bus that may be loaded with 60 or more passengers. Given the much larger mass of such intercity buses their upper structures are extremely weak and any rollover at highway speed is likely to result in many fatalities, as has been shown in many previous incidents worldwide. In a recent brief submitted to the Canadian Parliamentary committee studying bus passenger safety, co-authored by Professor Ahmed Shalaby, of the University of Manitoba, the inadequacy of most roadside barriers was highlighted. Several examples from previous bus rollovers over top of low roadside barriers demonstrated the unnecessarily dangerous consequences that result. Recently, in the U.S., changes are being made to the suggested heights of guardrails to increase their height. Very often Canadian regulators follow the guidelines implemented in the U.S. However it will take many years before any substantial changes can begin to be made to the very large number of inadequate systems that presently exist. Thus the public needs to be aware of these dangers and appropriate measures need to be considered to reduce the chances heavy vehicle rollovers.
You must be logged in to post a comment.