Skip to main content

Report into passively safe lighting columns

Lighting columns and other roadside structures such as overhead gantries play an essential role in road safety, by improving night time visibility or giving information to drivers. However old generation units themselves pose a potential hazard as they can be impacted by vehicles departing the roadway and potentially with fatal results in the event of a high speed crash. This is why newer passively safe columns have been developed, which are designed to collapse in a controlled fashion when impacted, reduci
November 16, 2015 Read time: 1 min

Lighting columns and other roadside structures such as overhead gantries play an essential role in road safety, by improving night time visibility or giving information to drivers. However old generation units themselves pose a potential hazard as they can be impacted by vehicles departing the roadway and potentially with fatal results in the event of a high speed crash. This is why newer passively safe columns have been developed, which are designed to collapse in a controlled fashion when impacted, reducing the risk of death or injury to vehicle occupants.

This paper investigates some of the key issues for passively safe columns. Click here to view more.

Related Content

  • Getting to the heart of road noise - to eliminate disturbance
    May 20, 2016
    Traffic noise is a widespread nuisance that can impact where and how we choose to live, property prices and our quality of life. Better planning and use of mitigation factors can make a significant difference Traffic is one of the top five sources of nuisance noise – along with industry, construction, sport and leisure and general neighbourhood noise. Road traffic is also one of the most diverse sources of noise. You know where it’s going to come from, but less often what the noise will be as the volu
  • Pan-European speeding enforcement yields success
    September 25, 2013
    A recent Pan-European police operation to enforce laws on speeding has yielded major success. Over 720,000 drivers were detected breaking speed limits in the operation, which was co-orcinated by the European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL) in 28 countries. Of the 728,268 detections, 274,355 were made directly by police officers and 453,913 came from automatic speed detectors. Stopping drivers for speeding offences also provides police officers with the opportunity to make other safety and security checks. D
  • Francis Scott Key Bridge demolition
    July 3, 2025
    Demolition is planned for the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
  • Australia’s road safety crisis as crashes increase
    December 22, 2016
    Increases in the numbers of road crashes and road deaths are giving cause for concern in Australia. The gain in the country’s road fatality rate is of note as it comes after a 40 year period in which those killed or seriously injured (KSI) have been reducing. Certain sections of the country’s road network have been identified as being of particular risk to drivers, with moves in hand to improve safety. The Australian Automobile Association has revealed that there were 15,339 crashes in the country that resu