We’ve all heard the phrase ‘like a hot knife through butter’, with its connotation of something being done extremely easily. Well not many things appeared easier than the recent incident of an HGV ploughing through the steel central reservation barrier causing danger to the oncoming traffic on the M62. The driver, who was recently convicted of dangerous driving for falling asleep at the wheel, was travelling towards Seaforth docks when his HGV careered across the carriageway between junctions 7 and 8 and then crossing-over the central reservation steel barrier.
Footage is shown of the driver crashing through the steel highway barrier and driving for about a mile on the wrong side of the M62 motorway, with the Liverpool Echo reporting “the 63 year old was fighting sleepiness and without taking a break – eventually caused a crash which left a van driver with back and neck injuries. The footage from the dashboard camera on board Hughes’ lorry shows cars desperately changing lanes to avoid a head-on collision. The driver later admitted at Liverpool Crown Court to being jolted awake when his lorry hit the crash barrier, but claimed panic and disorientation led him to carry on driving towards the slip road.”
Click here to see Liverpool Echo’s video footage from the HGV’s dashboard camera.
This incident highlights the limitations of steel barriers in the central reserve and its inability to contain larger vehicles. In comparison to a rigid concrete barrier, recent incidents have seen HGVs prevented from crossing over in to oncoming traffic despite the vehicle restraint system having been breached from the excessive impact. This further validates the need to place emphasis on the performance of the products to ensure the safety of the road user provided by high containment low maintenance concrete systems, rather than low budget quick fix replacement of the kilometres of outdated steel systems currently on the UK road network.
BBS are providers of fully certified, high containment, low maintenance concrete and steel barrier system designs for the highways and security industry.
