Check this one out.

[Xander Wildeisen]

I am sure this person is glad their arm was not on the center console. On the news this morning.  http://www.ktvb.com/news/local/idaho/stolen-pickup-found-impaled-on-30-feet-of-steel-guard-rail/446656365

[capngrog]

While the ... "Stolen pickup found impaled on 30 feet of steel guard rail ..." is an impressive sight, realizing that the truck "ate" approximately 100 linear feet of guardrail before coming to rest, boggles what's left of my mind.  That truck must have really been haulin' to strip that much guardrail from its mountings.  I can't even imagine what that experience would have been like for the driver with that guardrail slamming through the cab inches (or less) from his right elbow.  The news article mentioned that the driver of the stolen truck had not been found, and I can imagine why.  He's probable still scampering towards the horizon like Wylie Coyote with a self-administered hot foot.

 

Xander, please let us know of any further developments in this case.

 

Cheers,

Grog

[wayne sheldon]

Years ago, one of my wife's cousins had quite a reputation for drinking and driving (can you say "idiot"?). Early one morning, speeding in great excess, he attempted to cross a one lane bridge in very heavy fog (he had been told that if he was late once more, he would be fired from his job). Unfortunately for him, there was a fork lift going the other direction. He survived. But the fork took a chunk out of his ear. It took about an hour for responders to get him out of his car. And yes, he lost his job (it was the company's forklift).

Just thought I would share that.

[Xander Wildeisen]

9 hours ago, capngrog said:

While the ... "Stolen pickup found impaled on 30 feet of steel guard rail ..." is an impressive sight, realizing that the truck "ate" approximately 100 linear feet of guardrail before coming to rest, boggles what's left of my mind.  That truck must have really been haulin' to strip that much guardrail from its mountings.  I can't even imagine what that experience would have been like for the driver with that guardrail slamming through the cab inches (or less) from his right elbow.  

well said. I am sure it was the side of the engine block that sent the guard rail to the passenger side. A little farther to the drivers side, and they would of found the driver.

[46 woodie]

I read somewhere that you can't call them "Guardrails" anymore, they are now called "Guide Rails". The reason for this is incredible. It seems some jerk stole a car while about four times over the legal limit, plastered out of his mind. He went off the side of the road at about 100 MPH, right thru the guard rail. Well, he sued the state and won, because the "Guardrail" did not "guard" him and he wound up in a wheelchair for life. Only in America!

[mike6024]

They (the metal railings) are designed to peel away from the posts they are mounted on and to curl up into a helix or corkscrew to absorb energy. In California CalTrans was getting sued for using rails that did not meet engineering standards because they were too strong and went straight into the passenger compartment instead of curling up. But there's so many variables. If your vehicle hits the end of the metal rail it is supposed to curl, not glance upward and go through the windshield.

 

In several graphic cases, reported by ABC's 20/20, the guardrail speared straight through the vehicle, severing motorists' legs, instead of safely curling away from the vehicle and its passengers as designed.

 

 

Edited June 9, 2017 by mike6024 (see edit history)

[auburnseeker]

Well there is the alternative to a guard or guide rail.  That's to plunge 40 plus feet down the bank or cliff and hit the 100 year old oak that won't even feel it.   I can bet it won't curl out of the way. 

BEst idea is to avoid running into the "rail" in the first place. 

[wayne sheldon]

Auburnseeker, No joke. When I was in high school, my dad had business interests in a little town called Laytonville in the way out of the way Northern Califunny area.We spent a lot of time around those old highways and back roads in that area. Old highway 101 in those days was somewhat treacherous. Many short parts of 101 are still to this day only two lane. Back in the 1960s (when we spent a lot of time there), most of the highway still had NO guardrails. Many areas had NO shoulder, and some were only a few feet from the lane to the edge where it was straight down from 30 to more than 150 feet to the rocky riverbed below.

During the '60s, the State Highway Department (later called Catrans) started putting up guardrails. As part of my dad's business, he had to deal with the Highway Department, and got to know several of the local officials.We were told, by authorities in the know, that in one particularly bad mile (100 feet straight down), TWO cars had gone over that edge in the ten years before the guardrail was put up. In the three years after the guardrail was installed, five cars managed to flip themselves OVER the rail. Seems a lot of people will be a lot more careful when there is nothing to supposedly protect them from their own stupidity.