Safe Speed Forums

here is another one, car hits this one really fast surely there must be a danger of flying glass etc hitting pedestrians?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BSyD-w1 ... ed&search=

'Spear' bollards leave driver needing treatment
Monday, 20th November 2006
Mike Keegan



A DRIVER needed treatment from paramedics after becoming the latest victim of Manchester's retractable bollards.
Her car was impaled by the telescopic poles on Cross Street in the city centre.

The bollards have caused many accidents and a video showing some of them has been viewed by over 300,000 on the internet.

While the debate over the rights and wrongs of the restrictions goes on, the 30-year-old driver was, according to a witness, "clearly shaken up" by the incident.

Sebastian Matthes, who took the photograph, said: "The lady was clearly shaken up and looked like she didn't know where she was. Paramedics were treating her on the steps of a shop and it was clear that she was very distressed."

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Ambulance Service confirmed that they had attended the scene.

The bollards were introduced in June as traffic calming measures but have since spiked a number of cars - with many being written off.

The M.E.N. has revealed that they are in breach of government safety rules. A Department for Transport leaflet states that bollards should be designed so that they cannot rise up underneath a passing car and council chiefs are now considering modifying them

This video make me realise how very unlike normal road hazards these booby-trap bollards are. A driver with well developed hazard perception would have no reason at all to scan for a hydraulic jack rising out of the road.

Some of them do like like utterly stupid driving, but at least one seems to be a case of a van driver believing he had been cleared to proceed, only to have the bollards rise in front of him. He hit his head on the windscreen, smashing it.

Rising Bollards set for a fall

The future of rising bollards - the UK's most aggressive traffic-calming measure - is in doubt following new Government guidelines suggesting they breach official safety rules. The poles, which allow through some vehicles - for example buses - but not others, have caused hundreds of write-off and injuries since they were introduced into UK city centres 14 years ago.
Last May a 63-year-old motorist died of "natural causes" after crashing into a metal rising bollard in Cambridge, and in Manchester last month similar devices tore through a woman's car narrowly missing her nine-month-old daughter.
That incident has caused officials in the city to consider scrapping the poles after a DfT leaflet was issued to councils. It said the units should not be capable of rising underneath a passing vehicle, and that driver safety should take priority over traffic calming.
Some experts are now consulting makers to whether their systems need to be modified. Cambridgeshire CC has posted a warning on its website that motorists risk car damage by passing rising bollards illegally, but drivers have complained that in-situ warnings do not spell out the dangers clearly enough.

Autoexpress
but drivers have complained that in-situ warnings do not spell out the dangers clearly enough.

These movies kind of put it in a different light. All three of those people are obviously following too close and are trying to slip in behind the bus

MEN

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The M.E.N. has revealed that they are in breach of government safety rules. A Department for Transport leaflet states that bollards should be designed so that they cannot rise up underneath a passing car and council chiefs are now considering modifying them