Abstract
The development of the Australian/New Zealand Standard on Road Safety Barrier Systems (AS/NZS
3845)[1] has informed and directed road safety professionals toward a consistent standard of road safety barrier installation. However, although many crash testing issues are actually discussed in
AS/NZS 3845, the reference to another document for the testing (the US National Co-operative
Highway Research Program Report 350 Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features (NCHRP 350) [2]) can lead to a pass/fail decision being made without adequate thought for the limitations of the testing. Should crashworthiness assessment be over simplified, it can seriously affect the appropriateness of an installation.
This paper outlines the test assessment process and discusses issues such as the normalised nature of the crash tests, the injury criteria used, the choice of test vehicle, the use of computer modelling and local testing of local product.