- Around the world, nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year.
- This averages 3,287 a day
- An additional 25 Million people are injured or disabled.
- Over half of road deaths occur with people 15-44 years old. Road crashes are the leading cause of death of people between the ages of 15-29 and the second leading cause of death for those from 5-14.
- Road crashes are the single greatest annual cause of death of healthy US citizens traveling abroad.
- In the United States, over 37,000 people die each year in road crashes
- Road crashes cost the US each year $230.8 Billion which averages $820 per person
What is roadside safety hardware used to reduce death on our highways? These are devices installed alongside the roadway that are designed to lessen the severity of crashes when a driver runs off the road. Examples would be guardrails which redirect vehicles away from hazardous objects and unsafe terrain; crash cushions which help slow a vehicle down or reduce the force of impact with a hazardous obstacle; and breakaway sign, signal, and light posts which break off at the base so that, when struck, they go over the vehicle landing behind it rather than on top of it.
Here is what the US Department of Transportation has to say about roadside safety hardware like guardrails. They call it the “Last Line of Defense”.
It came out of nowhere. Another vehicle going way too fast has sideswiped you on the Interstate, and even though you’ve braked and tried to recover from the skid, your vehicle is going off the road. Trees flash by, your breaks screech, and then there is the impact. Your car slides along the guardrail for what seems like ages, kicking up gravel and making a terrifying noise. But finally, it comes to a stop. And you are still alive.
Thousands of Americans have similar experiences every year, and they all have one thing in common: roadside safety hardware has saved their lives. Roadside safety devices have been proven to significantly reduce the number of fatal and serious injury crashes among drivers who would otherwise have run off the road and crashed into a potentially deadly object. For example, median barriers installed on rural four-lane freeways showed a 97% reduction in cross-median crashes.
Roadside safety hardware redirects vehicles that leave the roadway away from roadside hazards such as steep drop offs, bodies of water, trees, bridge piers, retaining walls, or utility poles. Highway engineers carefully weigh the placement of roadside safety hardware, and in most cases, these devices work extremely well.
Between 1980 and 2017, continuous improvements in engineering and design have reduced by 47% the number of fatalities resulting from vehicles crashing into guardrails. By comparison total fatalities related to motor vehicle crashes declined by 27% during the same period. In 2017, in less than one half of one percent of all 34,247 fatal crashes on the highways, the most harmful event is attributed to vehicles striking a guardrail terminal. So roadside safety equipment is truly the last line of defense.
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