UPDATE: March 28th, 2022 I launched two videos since with the same deep dive on how engineering has changed over time. One is on tires: th-cam.com/video/C9aX0vohM_8/w-d-xo.html and the other is on dental fillings and how they stay in your teeth th-cam.com/video/9o_8wT0k33M/w-d-xo.html If you enjoyed this video I think you'll like them.
Hey, you might actually see this if I respond to your recent comment. I want you to know that I am blocking your channel to remove this video from my recommended feed. I have selected “uninterested” at least 1,000 times over the past year but it is there all the time. I only post this because you may see this reflected in your analytics and not understand. I may not be the only one this has happened to. TH-cam is (probably accidentally) harassing me with your video. The only method provided to stop this is blocking your entire channel. Nothing personal or even professional so I thought it only fair to tell you. I’m not here to agrue, just inform. I have notifications shut off so I won’t even know if you respond. Millions of hours of video but YT insists on pestering me with this 15 minutes. No.
I am the opposite of the guy above me lolol. I'm so glad TH-cam suggested me your videos! I absolutely LOVE this style of video, and I appreciate how much work goes into each of these! you deserve so many more subs, heres +1.
A wild Mark Rober appears! Literally the first comment I saw waking up. Made my morning! I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for being an inspiration to me, to help me dream bigger and create better things.
Important note: 'phased out' means 'no longer approved for installation' not that they were all ripped out and replaced. Still plenty of older installations out there that aren't up to code anymore still spearing and slicing people.
Yep, I have a friend who got a piece of guardrail through her chin and jaw in an accident. Luckily lived with just a scar. (Edit- and I'm not yet thirty, so this wasn't like ye olden times either)
@@barryallen5507 so you would know where you can crash safely? That's dumb, all crashes are accidents, you can't pick where nor into what you crash into, because it happens too fast to react 99% of the time.
@@Dragon_breeder all crashes are not accidents and it is often still possible to control the vehicle to a moderate degree during partial loss of control. When I was 19, I hydroplaned on the highway at 70mph in a curve in the rain, the water was too deep because of welling and my tire tread was too thin because I young and broke, I was on a direct collision path with a Grove of trees that would have very likely resulted in my death, so I chose to actively counter steer (a tactic used in rally racing to control the forward direction of the vehicle moving at a high rate of speed on terrain with low traction) and allowed my vehicle to engine brake instead of using my brakes because that would have locked up my wheels and resulted in complete loss of control. I am alive today because of my ability to drive and the choices in made during that crash. Instead of veering off to the right of the road and continuing straight into the trees with only a seatbelt to 'save' me (more like kill me, check vehicle crash stats and impact of seatbelts during collisions over 40mph for context), I guided the vehicle back to the left leaning curve and hit the wire guard rail. Initial impact with the railing ripped my entire left front suspension out of the vehicle, causing my brakes to fail and leaving me with only one wheel to steer and a cable pull hand brake that controlled the rear wheels. I spun out and continued to redirect the vehicle towards the rail to the left side instead of the hill to the right side. I hit all four corners of the vehicle on the rail and did 2.5 full spins, after which point I had slowed down and dissipated enough energy that I managed to straighten out the vehicle even with one wheel and used my handbrake to stop just on the right edge of the road. We're not all old or slow like you I guess. You can work on your reaction times through practice. If the only thing you know how to do in a car is travel in a straight line, you are certainly doomed in the event you lose control. There are advanced driving classes you can take to further expand your ability to mitigate danger in a loss of control event, like sliding on ice or hydroplaning or spinning out, I'd recommend you attend at least one. The only way that you cannot pick where you crash is if you have total loss of traction (rare occurence), your vehicle systems fail due to damage (possible, but unlikely), or you are suffering from a medical emergency. "That's dumb" personal experience and the entire racing industry begs to differ.
Those cable barriers saved mine and my kids' lives. I lost control of my car during and unexpected snow storm and hit one doing about 60. Totaled my car but we walked away shaken but mostly unscathed. I thank the stars for engineers, we wouldn't be here without them!
Judging by replies I’m sure this David fellow is just swell at parties. In all actuality, it’s a relief no one was hurt in your situation. I have a higher appreciation for road barriers now thanks to both the video and this comment!
@@federicoalcantara4796 even 60km/h can be a lot in a snowstorm, especially if you don't have winter tires, or do have a driver who is inexperienced with driving in slippery snow. Heck, some rainstorms should slow you down way below that too.
I am entirely humbled a long line of people I'll never know have worked to secure my life and limb; we whinge about so many small ways we feel society fails us, but are unaware of the design, work, and policies that may have served us without our knowing. Thank you Andrew for a very educational video.
Similar to how we underestimate and overlook how God created the universe. Interesting how our bodies are designed to do many things you never even knew about for example.
As a truck driver, this is something I've always wondered about, seeing so many bad accidents with barriers. Thanks for taking the time to research the subject and for making this video.
As a truck driver you need to worry about the 3rd world migrants with no driving license or green card behind the wheel of a 50,000 lb semi when they cannot even read english or know the road laws.
I remember in college, in our first actual engineering course, they had us do some problems about this exact topic to drive home how deadly serious engineering can be, and the hard decisions engineers sometimes have to make. If you're making the decision whether to install guardrails, you don't have infinite money. If we want to make calculated informed decisions about where and when to install guardrails, you will eventually need to solve for x, where x is the value of a human life. As much as we'd like to think a human life is infinitely valuable, that would make it impossible to determine when and where to spend on safety improvements instead of, say, improving the roads, providing public libraries, or delivering mail. So there must be a number. Who decides x? Hopefully it's never me.
I remember in the 80's, I was probably around 8 yrs old at the time, meeting a guy that had part of a wooden (I believe) guard rail stuck inside of him from a car wreck that they couldn't remove for fear it would kill him.
If we can say the Carnage Alley barriers were only installed due to the media exposure and lobbying, think that that same money could maybe have been used to make barriers in busier areas where it would save more lives overall.
I'm suddenly remembering something I think I learned in driver ed circa 1983, to the effect of guard rails are deadly. They're there to protect the road and other traffic from the crash, not the people in the crashed vehicle. I hadn't explicitly thought about that since high school, but I shouldn't be surprised to learn that engineers have worked on them and gotten better and better over the course of time.
So basically it was "don't be stupid and drive responsibly", to the now "some people are too stupid and can't be trusted to drive responsibly, we engineers need to invent stuff to save them".
@@georgehill3087 Well, that's basically what happens when you can't be a functional adult in your country without having to own and actively use a car, can't go grocery shopping (in a realistic timetable), can't conmute, can't visit places between some kilometers apart, heck, you can't even go to the mart without owning a car, of course there's people who shouldn't be driving, but the design of the cities forces them to.
It might sound weird, but you can always count on human stupidity. Crashes are going to keep happening, because idiots are given the wheel. This doesn't mean that everybody involved in an accident are idiots, no. What I mean is that in every crash, excluding some very specific circumstances like mechanical failure, an idiot is the cause.
@@PunakiviAddikti human error ≠ idiocy. every once in a while, everyone is bound to have a shitty day where they're gonna have trouble paying attention to the road but need to make a commute regardless.
@@yokowan I know, I understand human error. But I have seen and heard some genuine idiots behind the wheel. Think Karen T-bones another car because "she's too important to stop at a red light".
@@PunakiviAddikti those people exist but they're rare. I've run a fair share of red lights myself but never on purpose. it's unfair to say it's one in almost every crash
As a guy that works for my states DOT I can say you put together a very informative video. I deal with all this on a daily basis and it’s great to see someone so well informed and educating the public.
I'm genuinely curious, so I'm sorry if this sounds rude, I just want to know more. Guardrail guy is a guy on TH-cam that makes videos of him walking around roads and showing every guardrail that's not installed correctly because his daughter was killed by an incorrectly installed guardrail. Is that actually an issue with the guardrails where if every bolt isn't put into the exact place it goes, can it actually kill someone? Because I feel like if that's true, wouldn't DOTs be making sure everyone knew how to install one before letting them go do it for real? Or wouldn't they have made some other regulation to prevent it?
This was so cool. My dad was an engineer working on crash barriers in the 80's and 90's, and I went to a few crash tests as a kid. Unfortunately he passed away in the late 90's, so I never got to see his work as an adult, but then when you showed the first collapsible barrier I went "Hey, that's Dad's company's logo!" He's got several patents from '86-'98 on things like changing from the rigid guardrail ends to collapsible ends, as well as the crash barrels you showed. It was really cool to see the kinds of things he was instrumental in changing!
A collapsible barrier stopped me and my family from going off the edge off a cliff after we had hydroplaned at 50mph in heavy rain. It slowed us down enough that my dad was able to get control again and steer us back to the shoulder. Your dad's work saved us and will save many more lives to come. I'll give my thx to you so you can give it to him one day, if you believe in that. So thank you!
@@cyan_oxy6734 not really. 50 is incredibly slow here in California for our freeways, and we were in the slow lane still getting honked at. Almost every freeway here is next to a sharp drop at some point. We just hit an unlucky patch of water going around a bend and hydroplaned. Even going 25 in a school zone, you can hydroplane. There's nothing you can do but wait it out
@@cyan_oxy6734 Yeah rolling over puddles at highway speeds while turning will surely make you hydroplane. Especially in the US where everyone's going almost 1.5 times the speed limit, especially in inclement weather.
@@freddywesly somehow every single time, a person who obviously doesnt drive replies something very dumb. im sorry that guy doesnt understand anything LMFAO
I once saw them installing them and they were using this massive piledriver to put the uprights into the ground. Those upright supports go so deep it's amazing. Here where I live they have tried to extend protection to ground level to protect motorcyclists as the upright can tear a human practically in half if hit the right way by a sliding human.
I'm a highway engineer with over 20 years of experience. Great job on this video. It has a lot of good information and explains MASH compliance well and why it's important. The historical progression of barriers also helps understand the topic and why it's so important. I've shared it with my group at work.
I had no idea the “wasted” land between and beside highway roads was called a clear zone or that it’s specifically designed to save drivers. I just assumed it was “extra land” in case they decided to add another lane at another time.
It probably is. In the UK the hard shoulder where you can stop if you breakdown. Now in the Wisdom of some highway agency it is being gradually converted to an extra lane. Now it's breakdowns that are killing people...
I assume in many cases it’s a combination of both, with the median being in some cases wide enough to add another lane or two with a safe clear zone, or in others with an eye towards replacing the earthen median with a fixed (probably concrete) barrier, depending upon predictions of future traffic.
A well engineered guardrail saved my life when I got into a crash last year. Long story short I spun out briefly and slammed into the guardrail at 65-55mph and the airbags were broken on my old 2003 Taurus. I strongly believe the only reason I got through with legit just a few bruises and a very minor concussion+very very mild whiplash was a combo between my heavier car, the fact I didn't tense up, the modern guardrail, my properly adjusted headrest, and a newer seatbelt designed to slow you down slightly slower
@@sirepauly im actually pretty sure its true, that's usually why drunk drivers usually survive crashes, because the alcohol slows their reaction time and relaxes their muscles
@@sirepauly it's true, I'm studying physics and we learn about stuff like this, softer surfaces slow down the impulse (how long you hit the surface for) and tensing muscles makes your arms stiffer which means if they hit something they are more likely to break instead of bruising only
Thank you for posting this. im always worried about my family members dying in car crashes to the point of panic. You helped me a lot get over that by making this video. I didn't know this stuff.
I love how much engineering and research goes into these safety instruments. I assumed that highway barriers were there to protect against head-on collisions from accidental lane divergence. I didn't realize how much engineering went into the shape of the barrier in order to help dissipate impact forces, and kinetic energy; and to help contain rollovers, and vertical movement.
@@jacks3395 when trying to determine the most "dangerous roads" of countries there must be a lot of factors, not just guard rails and crash barriers. Number of vehicles, the weight of average vehicles, the expertise of drivers, age of drivers, the healthiness of drivers, length of roads, and location of roads (roads that go across mountainsides are more dangerous than highways due to the height and geographical factors), safety regulations, etc.
As an Ironworker working on barrier rail on the interstate for miles at a time. A lot of work goes into keeping people safer on the road. It takes over 2 days just to put in the rebar to get a 150 ft stretch that traffic blows past in 1.2 seconds.Then it has to be formed and poured and stripped and polished… construction takes forever..
While safety measures have increased survivability of accidents, the root cause of accidents have spread unchecked in recent yrs. In Ca, Latino drivers cause a disproportionate % of DUIs, hit and runs, distracted driving. Disregard for common decency, the safety of other motorists; and, even traffic law, run rampantly amok among Calif Latinos. It'd be great if you could help shed some light on this censored topic to prompt proper public discourse and overdue action to address this taboo issue.
This was so interesting and fun to watch. Ever time I’m driving I think of what would happen if I or someone crashed into a barrier. I’ve always thought that it would spear me, make me go airborne, or wondered if it will even stop me from going into oncoming traffic. Clearly after watching this video the technology and testing involved is way more vigorous than I ever thought. Great video!
This was very well done and very interesting throughout the whole video. Information like this is definitely something you can appreciate when it comes to the everyday roads we're driving. Shout out to you for this video and shout out to our great engineers.
7:14 here in Australia, motorcyclists nickname them “shredders” and/or “cheese graters”…cos you get clipped by a car on a bike and go into one of those barriers…you ain’t living to see your next birthday…
@@izperehoda my favourite was Stephen fry on Parkinson. You need a surgery…(look out window)…but it’s raining so shouldn’t be too long What do you mean Well you know our name for motorcyclists? DONORS
This video made me feel a little bit safer, thank you. I've always had anxiety in cars from a few accidents I've had, understanding how things work always helps me overcome my fears though
This is the kind of educational content that should be on T.V. No drama. No annoying dramatic music. No exaggerative narrators. No over-the-top CGI. Just a very well-put together video that succeeds in making the topic guardrails really interesting! Very cool video!
I don’t think this is true. I believe education shows on cable television should appeal to a wider audience who maybe are not as scientifically inclined than people who who would watch a 15:00 minute TH-cam video about guard rails.
tbf makes crashes way cooler for ppl to post on social media, would be a blessing for society since they dont give a fuck anymore and just film u dying anyway
This is so helpful. We have a hazard in my neighborhood that has resulted in 4 crashes this year. Last night's was fatal. Great to have this video to share with our city officials.
As a DoT worker I'd like to see you expand on the engineering of the truck mounted crash attenuators as well as their trailer mounted cousins. In my seven years of working on the roads I've been hit in crash trucks 3 times and have been on 8 different work crews that have been hit and in every instance everyone went home OK. Except the drunk guy that hit us at +85. He went to jail instead. Keep up the awesome work.
When you said he went to jail somehow I breathed a sigh of relief. I imagine much worse. This also goes to show how safe modern vehicles are - being able to survive 85+ mph collision so that his ass can be put in jail.
yeah now as a DOT worker are you going out constantly repairing guardrails? because i see this one guy going around roasting you workers for not having them perfect all the time.
The thing I liked about Germany, when I was stationed there, is that if someone drives drunk or impaired and gets in an accident, they lose their driving privileges for life, which is the way it should be in the United States. No second chances for drunk, impaired, vehicle manslaughter, or even road rage.
Love how people are constantly innovating to save lives. As a side note, people often get upset when people in government say some life saving measures aren't cost effective but money is a finite resource and putting a bunch of it to protect against less likely hazards inevitably means stripping it from protecting against more likely hazards. It sounds callous but if your job is to save everyone you can with the budget you're alloted then you have to make sacrifices to get the most safety for your dollar.
I dont think it sounds callous at all, I think the people pretending their is an infinite resource available when there isnt are the callous ones, they happily sacrifice lives through ignorance of their own choosing. Being willing to stand up and say no when you know it will cost more lives to say yes is a brave act.
There is a saying. Like it or not you can't save everyone. That's just the world we live in. Accept it and move on. PS: dont even think about "I refuse to accept that!!!" Bullshit. This isn't an anime show.
Neanderthal Tom Cave Beast Sociopathic Parasite - cut the military budget in half and using that money you could get ALL of the roads, in the US, covered in concrete barriers in 2 years. that's not a exaggeration either. people don't understand just how WASTEFUL our budget is and that in fact money isn't really a ISSUE. that's just the federal government, local government isn't much better. all kinds of wasteful spending going on. really the issue isn't money, it's who lobbies the government more that is the issue and who ends up getting public funds.
I remember when they changed the structure of road side electric and phone poles so that the pole gave way at the base to prevent a total car crushing. That was a major game changer in highway fatalities.
these types of engineering videos are so nice to watch. They always makes mee feel so humble in all the advanced tested engineering that on first looks seem like something simple anyone could make in there own garage in a weekend
@@georgesgranger6362 and shops hate working on destroyed cars that are not being paid out the ass for, honestly that's the biggest thing I think, like having a new car with a warranty, you'll be the first one in and the last one out because every other customer is paying, you're not
@@zanechristiansen honestly, fact. We work with Insurance and warranty cars and let me tell you. Some cars people want you to fix for half the estimate as if your life style isnt worth a damn
@@georgesgranger6362 exactly I saw a video somewhere basically saying that, in the end it seems worth it to just "total" it and put a down payment on something else, unfortunately
Just like a car's gas tank doesn't explode when struck with a bullet. Or a lot of bullets. Or at all. Practically never. Like you can't break down an outside door with your shoulder or a kick. About the only thing realistic about action movies is how often people shooting at one another MISS. I used to get frustrated with how many bullets were wasted in action scenes (I still do). Then I learned that four New York City police officers had fired 41 bullets at the innocent and unarmed migrant Amadou Diallo in 1999, striking him just SEVEN times! This is why I choose a shotgun for home defense. Preferably one with at least a 24-round capacity. Accuracy Not Required.
@@terrifictomm I agree with all your points, except the door one. You can kick down a door, just not with one swift kick, it takes multiple strong kicks
@@Calebnelson24 Perhaps. It depends on the the quality of the door. Seriously though. What's with emptying your handgun at hiding suspects in five seconds when they aren't even showing themselves? At least they don't throw their empty gun away anymore, like the used to in 50s and 60s westerns. That didn't make sense to me as a seven year old.
Spent most of my life building highways so it’s kind of nice understanding the specific reasons for the different systems I have been seeing for a couple of decades. Plus you kind of explained the reason for the costly studies the often do before even beginning a project in the first place when you see all the things that need to be considered. Road work in general is not as simple as one would think. Fascinating really. I appreciate your efforts.
My dad used to work for the state back in the 80’s. He said roadworkers got busted…sometimes, after an accident damaged a guardrail, if the machinery was tied up…the guys would just use older cull post to reattach to guardrail. These post were barely in the ground a few inches and were basically just cosmetic.
this was a REALLY cool video, I'm glad you made it. I've always been interested in how crazy effective those cable barriers were when they were new. it's cool to have all this crash safety research served up to me like this. and I only just noticed this seems to be your entry into this style of video? holy crap what an intro, I really thought you were just another one of those 10 million subscriber info channels.
Thanks a bunch! To produce this video took a ton of research, building new skills, the belief I could do it plus an amazing community of people who gave me incredibly great feedback to get it to this point. It was so terrible and it took painful revision after revision to get it to this point. Even now I recognize there's so much more I could do but I just had to put it out to the world and see what the reaction was.
Since its your intro and thus a chance to learn -- I REALLY wanted to read the deaths per (something) per year but could not make it out. Deaths per million people, so 25,000 deaths in 1920? Or deaths per million cars? The new MASH guardrails image had type that was worse. Finally (I'm going to stop complaining after this one and just watch) the next was "...this compares two studies ..." which was ENTIRELY illegible. Why bother? Why frustrate us? One of my petty persistent complaint with YT is that the text is often too small to read ... unless I lean forward and peer, or pull the screen closer. I'm not even counting the number of times I've tried enlarging the screen. I tried googling: type script size per screen size but I didn't understand the results. Maybe you will. If you must use small print maybe you should read it aloud as well. "This chart show ..." Thanks for a good video. Oh. Recently a woman was subject to a PIT maneuver and her car rolled over. www.khou.com/article/news/nation-world/pregnant-woman-car-flipped-pit-maneuver-arkansas/91-0f48c495-f124-44bb-af4e-437014f5a97f The police officer who had his lights on was trying to pull her over for speeding. She slowed and put her hazards lights on, looking for a safe place to pull over. He wasn't happy and used a PIT. The road was under construction and had barriers on both sides, I think they were what you call "F" shapes. The officer thought she should have stopped anyhow. Maybe there should be signs up saying "No room for shoulder stop." to make it clear to everyone. Now she's suing the officer and the force. Oh, and Arkansas police killed 3 people this year so far using PIT.
Really interesting - however the cable barriers are hated by motorcycle riders as the cables can literally slice limbs off. Suggest a follow up covering impact on motorcycles and the crash barriers.
@@fynkozari9271 Civilians are not the only people that have to worry about cost, transportation departments do not have unlimited funding. Cheaper barriers means more currently unprotected roads can receive some protection.
Just dont drive a motorcycle. Lol. If motorcyclists cared about safety, they wouldnt be riding motorcycles. Just look at the stats. The stats for motorcycle accidents really makes me question their street legality. You literally just asking to die driving one of those things. And those guard rails ain't gonna do shite when the rider gets propelled off their bike and slams their head into the ground at 70mph.
Right? Very cool engineering! Now we should put those wise minds to work discovering better ways to get energy without hurting the earth. And ways of being more efficient. Doing more with less and also reusing and not wasting things. 🌿👍✅
I'm honestly fascinated with how interesting and easy to learn you made it. High quality content makes any "boring" subject interesting and educational like you did here. Never noticed this much thought went into it, thanks for the knowledge and great video!
YES! Please do more of this type of content. Dash cam reviews are a dime a dozen. THIS is interesting! In the 70s, I and my childhood friends were traveling with my dad on his work runs. We were in the bed of a camper shelled truck, when we were forced into a steel pole by another driver. The truck centered on the pole at the front bumper at about 30mph. Note, this is before seatbelt usage. Kids in the back were slammed into the back of the cab and the driver was propelled into the steering wheel. No major injuries. Why? We had hit one of the newly installed break-away poles that absorbed the impact and still kept us from careening over the overpass into freeway traffic. Roadway engineers are the silent protectors of us all!
@@nicktw2386 lol you're talking to the wrong person, I enjoyed school. But I can appreciate what you're getting at. Some teachers are better than others for sure. Cheers :)
I love what you said at the end "I hope you can appreciate roads, engineers, and governments more" that's exactly how I felt while watching. Thank you!
Unbelievable how impressive these devices are. I don’t remember being taught about trying to use these at any point until now. In the event of catastrophic brake failure, these could safe more lives than just the driver.
Cool learning about things I see every day on the commute. I had a general idea of their purpose but now I feel I have a better understanding of why they were chosen over all the other options.
The cable barrier is just like an string egg slicer for the bikers, i think. I saw them appeared in my city recently and that was the first thought that popped up in my mind when i first seen it.
I can attest to that. One of my coworkers at work lost both of his legs from those cable barriers last year from a motorcycle accident at around 40 mi/h.
@@MBG141 It will also not be a pleasant experience if you are on a Convertible, Casey Putsch goes really in depth on it on a video, and tells the story about some kid who got decapitated on a corvette, really fucking sad
Yeah I was thinking, if the cable breaks the energy in that would be such an unbelievably powerful whip. Think I read something about a guy on the deck of an aircraft carrier losing a leg or two to broken cables they use to stop jets.
@@rockyfalldownstairs When a cable guide rail breaks, the wire whips away from the car that broke the wire. If cable guide rail is installed in the correct location (e.g. open median of rural roads) there is not likely to be anyone around to get hit by the broken wire.
@@agepatterson he means by rare, that is not very abundant on this platform (or any other platform for that matter) - if it was a joke don't r/woosh me i am currently using 10% of my brain after exams :p
@@werkhaye fuck reddit just don’t even mention it, the joke is so dead and it was never funny. if anyone r/WOOSHES u it doesn’t matter as it’s just childish, they are a waste of air and bytes on the internet.
I seriously show this video to people as an example of a subject I never thought would be interesting but is here. It’s said that teacher makes a subject fun to learn or not, so you’ve done an excellent job on this.
I've always seen different types of barriers on the road and wondered how safe they were. This video really helped to clarify that! Also major props to the engineers that created them to help save our lives in case of collision!!
Crazy to think how it costs thousands of dollars to prevent a single hazard from crashes caused by a single distracted or inept driver. We could save so much money and lives by improving public transport and not driving everywhere all the time
Can't remember exactly, but i've heard that cable barriers are extremely dangerous to motorcyclists, literally tearing riders apart, that' s the main concern with them.
That MSKT is an incredible bit of engineering! I love seeing that kind of simple, outside-the-box design solution. Excellent work on the video! I'll never look at roadsides the same way now ;)
That clear zone, or I call “grassy median” is the exact reason why I saved my car at over 80mph when I narrowly missed a 200pound deer jumping onto a two lane highway dead into the night with only my high beams as a source of light.
Hi Andrew, thank you for this, it’s a fascinating and important subject. As a motorcyclist, I wanted to highlight that cable barriers are fatal for most collisions where a human hits a cable at speed. I believe French highways in particular chose to avoid cable barriers in favour of concrete, mainly because (probably) non-fatal incidents involving motorcyclists became fatal because of the catastrophic impact of humans with cables/steel uprights. I would love to hear more from you on this specific topic. Thanks, excellent video!
@@Shaun_Jones a motorcycle rider can lose control but manage to slow down before hitting the barrier. This may be survivable on solid barriers but cable barriers focus the force and can make it more deadly for the cyclist. Whether it is worth it to put up more expensive barriers depends on the use of that road. You'd have to consider how many cyclists use the road and how much barrier can be afforded. If putting up concrete or steel barriers significantly limits the amount of barrier that can be installed then it may be better to use cables anyway as it will save more lives overall.
I'd rather take a solid hit to a concrete barrier than be beheaded on an 10mph lowside when my helmet edge gets caught on an upright or cable as I slide by on my arse! You cannot bend the laws of physics, but you can minimise the risk and method of injury application even if it also ultimately ends up fatal (die some days later rather than lose one's head)!! I chose solid flat concrete 90% of the time
@@johnh3095 I would like to point out that, at least here in the states, there are not many motorcyclists driving down the interstate, at least not compared to car and truck drivers. With that in mind, it’s reasonable to assume that safety standards have less consideration for motorcycles than in other countries. Also, I’ve seen wire barriers, but never as the primary protection. Rails and concrete are used for the right side (which is the one we drive on and the side that directly faces hazards), and wire is only on the median, and it’s usually not right next to the road but placed closer to the middle of the grass, to stop vehicles from crossing into the oncoming traffic side.
@@Shaun_Jones no dramas my friend. We don't have many cable barriers in the UK at all, only the post and solid concrete type as we do not have the free space available to accommodate a stretching cable and car! They'd likely hit something like a tree, some earth bank or a building. Happy new Year to you all. Let's hope none of us ever have to experience hitting any type of barrier in 22 & beyond!
@@lucaprinselaar Yea I think my odds of Evel Knieveling up the side of a concrete barrier are better than my odds of coming out in one piece with a cable barrier. I was in an accident and hit a car that was making an illegal left in front of me once while I was going like 85kmph and came out with no broken bones so not really much difference between that and hitting concrete really.
When a motorcyclists hits a cable barrier whatever side the ambulance is determines which bits get picked up first, cable barriers may be cheap but they are very dangerous to motorcyclists.
what kind of person crashes right into the beginning of a guard rail? a dude died right near my neighborhood cuz he crashed into a guard rail and it went right through his windshield, these are not safe
This video is really excellent, every time I see a concrete barrier for the past two years, I think of this. Truly a fascinating look at something that blends into the backround.
Fun fact: The US government has an abbreviation for every weapon, vehicle, and occupation within the military. There's nothing they will not abbreviate.
Man, what a great video. Andrew really knows how to pace things. When 15 minutes of information feel like 5 minutes of entertainment, you've done a marvelous job.
The concrete barriers saved my brothers life last year. He works as a Highway patrol officer in Florida. He had a high speed chase back then where another car crashed into his patrol vehicle from behind. Glad he didn‘t die. Luckily the guy who made him crash was arrested later. I hope that’ll never happen again soon
Really well put together, just right amount of detail, engaging entire way. The crumple-cable MSKT footage is very satisfying to watch, without the knowledge of what's behind it it would look scary.
This randomly popped up in my recommendations, and I did not know that I wanted to learn about this. This is a great educational video and very well explained! Props to you buddy! Keep up the great work :-)
In 2013, my friends sister was killed in a big pile-up in southwestern Ohio. She was killed by a cable guard rail snapping and striking her in the head after the crash took place. It was a very sad year.
I just ran across this vid and I was amazed at the bewildering array of road barriers in existence to protect drivers ! I find the amount of engineering that goes into this both mindboggling and fascinating...
I love deep dives like this. It's amazingly detailed and mind expanding to get an insight into the way you have to think to design these kinds of safety equipment.
Yeah, gotta be like “alright, we really need this barrier to be able to stop a 16 year old kid who can’t stay off their phone two seconds, and is doing 85+ mph, or a 34 year old guy who had a few too many, and couldn’t just wait five minutes for a cab to pick him up.”
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UPDATE: March 28th, 2022
I launched two videos since with the same deep dive on how engineering has changed over time. One is on tires: th-cam.com/video/C9aX0vohM_8/w-d-xo.html and the other is on dental fillings and how they stay in your teeth th-cam.com/video/9o_8wT0k33M/w-d-xo.html If you enjoyed this video I think you'll like them.
Noice
Hey, you might actually see this if I respond to your recent comment. I want you to know that I am blocking your channel to remove this video from my recommended feed. I have selected “uninterested” at least 1,000 times over the past year but it is there all the time. I only post this because you may see this reflected in your analytics and not understand. I may not be the only one this has happened to. TH-cam is (probably accidentally) harassing me with your video. The only method provided to stop this is blocking your entire channel. Nothing personal or even professional so I thought it only fair to tell you. I’m not here to agrue, just inform. I have notifications shut off so I won’t even know if you respond.
Millions of hours of video but YT insists on pestering me with this 15 minutes.
No.
I am the opposite of the guy above me lolol. I'm so glad TH-cam suggested me your videos! I absolutely LOVE this style of video, and I appreciate how much work goes into each of these! you deserve so many more subs, heres +1.
Please continue to make this type of video. I enjoy watching them
Love your channel, happy to have discovered it 😀
Only 2 mins in and I already love where this is headed.
A wild Mark Rober appears! Literally the first comment I saw waking up. Made my morning! I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for being an inspiration to me, to help me dream bigger and create better things.
You brought me here
When this was posted on Reddit I immediately thought of you, lmao.
Henlo mark
This was truly and awesome educational video, even Mark approves!
Important note: 'phased out' means 'no longer approved for installation' not that they were all ripped out and replaced. Still plenty of older installations out there that aren't up to code anymore still spearing and slicing people.
Yeah I've definitely seen those types of barriers on the roads.
Correct. Its important to be able to spot the which is which, it might save your life.
Yep, I have a friend who got a piece of guardrail through her chin and jaw in an accident. Luckily lived with just a scar.
(Edit- and I'm not yet thirty, so this wasn't like ye olden times either)
@@barryallen5507 so you would know where you can crash safely? That's dumb, all crashes are accidents, you can't pick where nor into what you crash into, because it happens too fast to react 99% of the time.
@@Dragon_breeder all crashes are not accidents and it is often still possible to control the vehicle to a moderate degree during partial loss of control.
When I was 19, I hydroplaned on the highway at 70mph in a curve in the rain, the water was too deep because of welling and my tire tread was too thin because I young and broke, I was on a direct collision path with a Grove of trees that would have very likely resulted in my death, so I chose to actively counter steer (a tactic used in rally racing to control the forward direction of the vehicle moving at a high rate of speed on terrain with low traction) and allowed my vehicle to engine brake instead of using my brakes because that would have locked up my wheels and resulted in complete loss of control. I am alive today because of my ability to drive and the choices in made during that crash. Instead of veering off to the right of the road and continuing straight into the trees with only a seatbelt to 'save' me (more like kill me, check vehicle crash stats and impact of seatbelts during collisions over 40mph for context), I guided the vehicle back to the left leaning curve and hit the wire guard rail. Initial impact with the railing ripped my entire left front suspension out of the vehicle, causing my brakes to fail and leaving me with only one wheel to steer and a cable pull hand brake that controlled the rear wheels. I spun out and continued to redirect the vehicle towards the rail to the left side instead of the hill to the right side. I hit all four corners of the vehicle on the rail and did 2.5 full spins, after which point I had slowed down and dissipated enough energy that I managed to straighten out the vehicle even with one wheel and used my handbrake to stop just on the right edge of the road.
We're not all old or slow like you I guess. You can work on your reaction times through practice. If the only thing you know how to do in a car is travel in a straight line, you are certainly doomed in the event you lose control. There are advanced driving classes you can take to further expand your ability to mitigate danger in a loss of control event, like sliding on ice or hydroplaning or spinning out, I'd recommend you attend at least one.
The only way that you cannot pick where you crash is if you have total loss of traction (rare occurence), your vehicle systems fail due to damage (possible, but unlikely), or you are suffering from a medical emergency.
"That's dumb" personal experience and the entire racing industry begs to differ.
Those cable barriers saved mine and my kids' lives. I lost control of my car during and unexpected snow storm and hit one doing about 60. Totaled my car but we walked away shaken but mostly unscathed. I thank the stars for engineers, we wouldn't be here without them!
That’s a good ending, but I hope no one goes 60 mph in a snowstorm anymore
@@Avathreyn dude the fuck?
@@user-ut9ln4vd5m could also be 60 km/h which is about 37 mph
Judging by replies I’m sure this David fellow is just swell at parties.
In all actuality, it’s a relief no one was hurt in your situation. I have a higher appreciation for road barriers now thanks to both the video and this comment!
@@federicoalcantara4796 even 60km/h can be a lot in a snowstorm, especially if you don't have winter tires, or do have a driver who is inexperienced with driving in slippery snow. Heck, some rainstorms should slow you down way below that too.
I am entirely humbled a long line of people I'll never know have worked to secure my life and limb; we whinge about so many small ways we feel society fails us, but are unaware of the design, work, and policies that may have served us without our knowing. Thank you Andrew for a very educational video.
you are a good person
Every second a road is unable to be used = huge amounts of losses for logistics and industries so you're not what the government cares about.
@@edenassos if the governments in NA truly cared for your safety, the drivers license process would reflect that of countries with lower crash rates.
Whinge
Similar to how we underestimate and overlook how God created the universe. Interesting how our bodies are designed to do many things you never even knew about for example.
The whole time I'm watching this, I'm thinking, "Oof, if I hit a barrier, I wanna hit THAT one, not _that_ one."
Same XD
Still not hitting any of them is the best decision to make
@@ivanbullykov3442 Oh, really?? I never thought of that! Thanks!
@@tristanbach4421 you’re welcome
same
engineers in the 70: Let's put jumps at the end of barriers, sounds fun.
we have the show Dukes of Hazzard to thank for that!
Nice grammar
I SAY JUMP
Hahaha
YEEEEEE HAAAAAW!!!!!
As a truck driver, this is something I've always wondered about, seeing so many bad accidents with barriers. Thanks for taking the time to research the subject and for making this video.
You're welcome! Glad you're better informed!
A driver also ,
Dittos !
As a truck driver you need to worry about the 3rd world migrants with no driving license or green card behind the wheel of a 50,000 lb semi when they cannot even read english or know the road laws.
I now pay more attention at the barriers around my city. This is knowledgeable and entertaining. Thank you Andrew!
I remember in college, in our first actual engineering course, they had us do some problems about this exact topic to drive home how deadly serious engineering can be, and the hard decisions engineers sometimes have to make. If you're making the decision whether to install guardrails, you don't have infinite money. If we want to make calculated informed decisions about where and when to install guardrails, you will eventually need to solve for x, where x is the value of a human life. As much as we'd like to think a human life is infinitely valuable, that would make it impossible to determine when and where to spend on safety improvements instead of, say, improving the roads, providing public libraries, or delivering mail. So there must be a number. Who decides x? Hopefully it's never me.
Read this just Andrew showed the table that included the estimated monetary value of a life
I remember in the 80's, I was probably around 8 yrs old at the time, meeting a guy that had part of a wooden (I believe) guard rail stuck inside of him from a car wreck that they couldn't remove for fear it would kill him.
I’ll do it
A doctor makes a mistake, one person dies. An engineer makes a mistake, potentially hundreds or thousands will die.
If we can say the Carnage Alley barriers were only installed due to the media exposure and lobbying, think that that same money could maybe have been used to make barriers in busier areas where it would save more lives overall.
I'm suddenly remembering something I think I learned in driver ed circa 1983, to the effect of guard rails are deadly. They're there to protect the road and other traffic from the crash, not the people in the crashed vehicle. I hadn't explicitly thought about that since high school, but I shouldn't be surprised to learn that engineers have worked on them and gotten better and better over the course of time.
Lmfao so basically they said "Sounds like a you problem if you hit a guard rail"
So basically it was "don't be stupid and drive responsibly", to the now "some people are too stupid and can't be trusted to drive responsibly, we engineers need to invent stuff to save them".
@@georgehill3087 i mean most people dont intend to hit them
@@georgehill3087that's the point of engineering, making things and keeping people safe, teachers and parents aren't doing their job.
@@georgehill3087 Well, that's basically what happens when you can't be a functional adult in your country without having to own and actively use a car, can't go grocery shopping (in a realistic timetable), can't conmute, can't visit places between some kilometers apart, heck, you can't even go to the mart without owning a car, of course there's people who shouldn't be driving, but the design of the cities forces them to.
Restorable unit engineer's thinking process: "Just 5 more crashes and this baby will literally start saving us money!"
Omg guys, you better start crashing here or I’ll have to do it myself
It might sound weird, but you can always count on human stupidity. Crashes are going to keep happening, because idiots are given the wheel. This doesn't mean that everybody involved in an accident are idiots, no. What I mean is that in every crash, excluding some very specific circumstances like mechanical failure, an idiot is the cause.
@@PunakiviAddikti human error ≠ idiocy. every once in a while, everyone is bound to have a shitty day where they're gonna have trouble paying attention to the road but need to make a commute regardless.
@@yokowan I know, I understand human error. But I have seen and heard some genuine idiots behind the wheel. Think Karen T-bones another car because "she's too important to stop at a red light".
@@PunakiviAddikti those people exist but they're rare. I've run a fair share of red lights myself but never on purpose. it's unfair to say it's one in almost every crash
As a guy that works for my states DOT I can say you put together a very informative video. I deal with all this on a daily basis and it’s great to see someone so well informed and educating the public.
I'm genuinely curious, so I'm sorry if this sounds rude, I just want to know more. Guardrail guy is a guy on TH-cam that makes videos of him walking around roads and showing every guardrail that's not installed correctly because his daughter was killed by an incorrectly installed guardrail. Is that actually an issue with the guardrails where if every bolt isn't put into the exact place it goes, can it actually kill someone? Because I feel like if that's true, wouldn't DOTs be making sure everyone knew how to install one before letting them go do it for real? Or wouldn't they have made some other regulation to prevent it?
This was so cool. My dad was an engineer working on crash barriers in the 80's and 90's, and I went to a few crash tests as a kid. Unfortunately he passed away in the late 90's, so I never got to see his work as an adult, but then when you showed the first collapsible barrier I went "Hey, that's Dad's company's logo!" He's got several patents from '86-'98 on things like changing from the rigid guardrail ends to collapsible ends, as well as the crash barrels you showed. It was really cool to see the kinds of things he was instrumental in changing!
A collapsible barrier stopped me and my family from going off the edge off a cliff after we had hydroplaned at 50mph in heavy rain. It slowed us down enough that my dad was able to get control again and steer us back to the shoulder. Your dad's work saved us and will save many more lives to come. I'll give my thx to you so you can give it to him one day, if you believe in that. So thank you!
@@freddywesly If anything your dad's driving nearly killed you. Driving that fast in heavy rain near a cliff sounds really reckless.
@@cyan_oxy6734 not really. 50 is incredibly slow here in California for our freeways, and we were in the slow lane still getting honked at. Almost every freeway here is next to a sharp drop at some point. We just hit an unlucky patch of water going around a bend and hydroplaned. Even going 25 in a school zone, you can hydroplane. There's nothing you can do but wait it out
@@cyan_oxy6734
Yeah rolling over puddles at highway speeds while turning will surely make you hydroplane. Especially in the US where everyone's going almost 1.5 times the speed limit, especially in inclement weather.
@@freddywesly somehow every single time, a person who obviously doesnt drive replies something very dumb. im sorry that guy doesnt understand anything LMFAO
I never knew this much thought was put into designing guard rails. Mind: blown
this much thought is put into toilet paper.
@@Tycy2014
You too ? Some times I can't remember which hand to use either.
Nasa has a 60 page guide on how to splice 2 wires together.
I once saw them installing them and they were using this massive piledriver to put the uprights into the ground. Those upright supports go so deep it's amazing. Here where I live they have tried to extend protection to ground level to protect motorcyclists as the upright can tear a human practically in half if hit the right way by a sliding human.
im a layman so how bout a net
I never knew learning about road barriers could be so interesting
ikr
I'm a highway engineer with over 20 years of experience. Great job on this video. It has a lot of good information and explains MASH compliance well and why it's important. The historical progression of barriers also helps understand the topic and why it's so important. I've shared it with my group at work.
This feels like something we would watch in school and I love it.
especially since we actually want to watch it
I'd love to watch this in school
Government employees toil in obscurity to make every day life safer and more enjoyable and all they get is scorn and hate. I'm tired of it.
When the whole class finishes the test early
I had no idea the “wasted” land between and beside highway roads was called a clear zone or that it’s specifically designed to save drivers. I just assumed it was “extra land” in case they decided to add another lane at another time.
Yeah, lol. I just thought it was land to separate the lanes.
If you've ever driven in an area where a snowstorm is happening, you're likely to see at least a few cars that have slid into those clear zones.
@@featheryfemme Which is called a clear zone. An area to separate the lanes. For safety reasons and so on 😉
It probably is. In the UK the hard shoulder where you can stop if you breakdown. Now in the Wisdom of some highway agency it is being gradually converted to an extra lane. Now it's breakdowns that are killing people...
I assume in many cases it’s a combination of both, with the median being in some cases wide enough to add another lane or two with a safe clear zone, or in others with an eye towards replacing the earthen median with a fixed (probably concrete) barrier, depending upon predictions of future traffic.
A well engineered guardrail saved my life when I got into a crash last year. Long story short I spun out briefly and slammed into the guardrail at 65-55mph and the airbags were broken on my old 2003 Taurus. I strongly believe the only reason I got through with legit just a few bruises and a very minor concussion+very very mild whiplash was a combo between my heavier car, the fact I didn't tense up, the modern guardrail, my properly adjusted headrest, and a newer seatbelt designed to slow you down slightly slower
Yeah I drove into a guardrail with a catchment net over the top, that net bounced my SUV back onto the road and had almost no damage to the car body
@@Selmarya I can’t tell if your trolling or not it’s funny imagining it in my head
i think the not tensing up during an accident is a myth other than that glad youre ok
@@sirepauly im actually pretty sure its true, that's usually why drunk drivers usually survive crashes, because the alcohol slows their reaction time and relaxes their muscles
@@sirepauly it's true, I'm studying physics and we learn about stuff like this, softer surfaces slow down the impulse (how long you hit the surface for) and tensing muscles makes your arms stiffer which means if they hit something they are more likely to break instead of bruising only
Thank you for posting this. im always worried about my family members dying in car crashes to the point of panic. You helped me a lot get over that by making this video. I didn't know this stuff.
Glad to hear! Helped me with my own anxiety too!
Loved this. Well researched, entertaining and educational. Subscribed.
Blender Guru hey sexy thing hru ? 😘
This is such a random place to see you again, wth?
Wow, didn't expect to see you here😂
do nut
But did u donate?
I love how much engineering and research goes into these safety instruments. I assumed that highway barriers were there to protect against head-on collisions from accidental lane divergence. I didn't realize how much engineering went into the shape of the barrier in order to help dissipate impact forces, and kinetic energy; and to help contain rollovers, and vertical movement.
But still the usa has the most dangerous roads of all western countries..!
@@jacks3395 when trying to determine the most "dangerous roads" of countries there must be a lot of factors, not just guard rails and crash barriers. Number of vehicles, the weight of average vehicles, the expertise of drivers, age of drivers, the healthiness of drivers, length of roads, and location of roads (roads that go across mountainsides are more dangerous than highways due to the height and geographical factors), safety regulations, etc.
@@Marshark50 Wisconsin for example has a ton of drunk drivers because we're a generally drunk state.
@@jacks3395 Some say stroads play a role
As an Ironworker working on barrier rail on the interstate for miles at a time. A lot of work goes into keeping people safer on the road. It takes over 2 days just to put in the rebar to get a 150 ft stretch that traffic blows past in 1.2 seconds.Then it has to be formed and poured and stripped and polished… construction takes forever..
"with enough crashes, restorable units save money"
YO! We need some moah crashes ovah heah! Joey, go hit dat barrier a few times.
Going to the emergency flasher Bailando to Mexico
thanks for the laugh lol
That is like saying I need my house robbed more often so my insurance cost per. robbery will be less.
Y'now, I don't trust joey.
While safety measures have increased survivability of accidents, the root cause of accidents have spread unchecked in recent yrs.
In Ca, Latino drivers cause a disproportionate % of DUIs, hit and runs, distracted driving. Disregard for common decency, the safety of other motorists; and, even traffic law, run rampantly amok among Calif Latinos.
It'd be great if you could help shed some light on this censored topic to prompt proper public discourse and overdue action to address this taboo issue.
This was so interesting and fun to watch. Ever time I’m driving I think of what would happen if I or someone crashed into a barrier. I’ve always thought that it would spear me, make me go airborne, or wondered if it will even stop me from going into oncoming traffic. Clearly after watching this video the technology and testing involved is way more vigorous than I ever thought. Great video!
"head slap" sounds so innocent for instant death.
I vote we change it to "head splat"
*Slaps top of head
"This baby can fit so much brain damage in it."
I watched someones head slap through the glass after the car we were in hit a barrier- we all lived.
@@Sabreeshuh that person is both extremely lucky and unlucky
@@kolby4078 Massive understatement. Head splat is way more accurate.
This was very well done and very interesting throughout the whole video. Information like this is definitely something you can appreciate when it comes to the everyday roads we're driving. Shout out to you for this video and shout out to our great engineers.
Thanks! I just realized hip hop explainer channels were a thing. Awesome stuff!
@@Lam First time coming to this amazing channel and is already so interested-!! Also very informative-!!
7:14 here in Australia, motorcyclists nickname them “shredders” and/or “cheese graters”…cos you get clipped by a car on a bike and go into one of those barriers…you ain’t living to see your next birthday…
Here in Russia, we call motorcyclists "bumper stickers"
@@izperehoda my favourite was Stephen fry on Parkinson.
You need a surgery…(look out window)…but it’s raining so shouldn’t be too long
What do you mean
Well you know our name for motorcyclists? DONORS
@@trayolphia5756 ye we also use that term but not too much. Also we have a slang word "crunchies" for the sound of a motorcyclists cracking bones
@@trayolphia5756 In Romania we also call them organ donors.
That's kinda funny although it shouldn't:(
This video made me feel a little bit safer, thank you. I've always had anxiety in cars from a few accidents I've had, understanding how things work always helps me overcome my fears though
This is the kind of educational content that should be on T.V.
No drama. No annoying dramatic music. No exaggerative narrators. No over-the-top CGI.
Just a very well-put together video that succeeds in making the topic guardrails really interesting! Very cool video!
what if i wanna watch dramatic music, and CGI
I don’t think this is true. I believe education shows on cable television should appeal to a wider audience who maybe are not as scientifically inclined than people who who would watch a 15:00 minute TH-cam video about guard rails.
11:12 was absolutely hilarious.. Someone , somewhere said " Yeah, this is a safe design. Gives them a fun ride before they die."
I always figured the goal of some of these was to save multi million dollar bridges from damage rather than saving lives.
@@jamieh7725 Uhm... well obviously yes. The guy u responded to said exactly that.
I thought I was the only one dying with that footage 🤣🤣🤣
I was so focused understanding all mechanics and all stuff, and suddenly there is a car flying as it was rocket league 🤣🤣
@@huberttargosz318 smh no need
I really appreciate how you took the time to find examples of these systems in the wild instead of just using clips.
This was surprisingly way more informative and enjoyable than I thought. Kudos to you, Andrew. Keep up the good work!
Today's engineers: "We need to reduce the impact force"
70s engineers: YEET!
“Make it a ramp so if the crash they dont fuck up our nice wall”
lol
"Aye if someones gonna die, might as well make it a show*"
@@andresacosta5318 lol
tbf makes crashes way cooler for ppl to post on social media, would be a blessing for society since they dont give a fuck anymore and just film u dying anyway
This is so helpful. We have a hazard in my neighborhood that has resulted in 4 crashes this year. Last night's was fatal. Great to have this video to share with our city officials.
Did it help?
any updates?
@@uuoiya there's been 16 more fatalities since then
@@Elross_ 200 more
Crazy driving is not a capital offense
even as someone living in the UK, this was extremely interesting.
Stop driving on the wrong side of the road!!
@@gsc01972 no u
@@tocopowerz3842 "this one is a violation"
@@tocopowerz3842 lol great comeback
Yo where's the relevants u.k still has guardrails ya lorry driving lorry sounds like a crap I'm taking a lorry
Andrews voice is so calming and softly that i fell asleep to him yapping about road barriers
As a DoT worker I'd like to see you expand on the engineering of the truck mounted crash attenuators as well as their trailer mounted cousins. In my seven years of working on the roads I've been hit in crash trucks 3 times and have been on 8 different work crews that have been hit and in every instance everyone went home OK. Except the drunk guy that hit us at +85. He went to jail instead.
Keep up the awesome work.
When you said he went to jail somehow I breathed a sigh of relief. I imagine much worse. This also goes to show how safe modern vehicles are - being able to survive 85+ mph collision so that his ass can be put in jail.
yeah now as a DOT worker are you going out constantly repairing guardrails? because i see this one guy going around roasting you workers for not having them perfect all the time.
Wow, 85+mph? It's a blessing he didn't kill any of your crew. I just hope he'll never drive again in his life.
The thing I liked about Germany, when I was stationed there, is that if someone drives drunk or impaired and gets in an accident, they lose their driving privileges for life, which is the way it should be in the United States. No second chances for drunk, impaired, vehicle manslaughter, or even road rage.
@@jarrrr69 Steve eimers hasnt roasted my employer yet but i started a guardrail inspection program because of him
Love how people are constantly innovating to save lives. As a side note, people often get upset when people in government say some life saving measures aren't cost effective but money is a finite resource and putting a bunch of it to protect against less likely hazards inevitably means stripping it from protecting against more likely hazards. It sounds callous but if your job is to save everyone you can with the budget you're alloted then you have to make sacrifices to get the most safety for your dollar.
I dont think it sounds callous at all, I think the people pretending their is an infinite resource available when there isnt are the callous ones, they happily sacrifice lives through ignorance of their own choosing. Being willing to stand up and say no when you know it will cost more lives to say yes is a brave act.
I wonder what would happen if we applied these same values to military spending, Medicare or education.
@@abiku2923 the world would probably be way more advanced tech wise. "The future is now old man"😂
There is a saying. Like it or not you can't save everyone. That's just the world we live in. Accept it and move on.
PS: dont even think about "I refuse to accept that!!!" Bullshit. This isn't an anime show.
Neanderthal Tom Cave Beast Sociopathic Parasite -
cut the military budget in half and using that money you could get ALL of the roads, in the US, covered in concrete barriers in 2 years. that's not a exaggeration either. people don't understand just how WASTEFUL our budget is and that in fact money isn't really a ISSUE.
that's just the federal government, local government isn't much better. all kinds of wasteful spending going on.
really the issue isn't money, it's who lobbies the government more that is the issue and who ends up getting public funds.
I remember when they changed the structure of road side electric and phone poles so that the pole gave way at the base to prevent a total car crushing. That was a major game changer in highway fatalities.
these types of engineering videos are so nice to watch. They always makes mee feel so humble in all the advanced tested engineering that on first looks seem like something simple anyone could make in there own garage in a weekend
"reduces car damage"
Every Car insurance company ever: Yep still can't be fixed you'll need a new car.
Insurance companies hate paying to fix cars
But they're not telling this to your next of kin......so there's that.
@@georgesgranger6362 and shops hate working on destroyed cars that are not being paid out the ass for, honestly that's the biggest thing I think, like having a new car with a warranty, you'll be the first one in and the last one out because every other customer is paying, you're not
@@zanechristiansen honestly, fact. We work with Insurance and warranty cars and let me tell you. Some cars people want you to fix for half the estimate as if your life style isnt worth a damn
@@georgesgranger6362 exactly I saw a video somewhere basically saying that, in the end it seems worth it to just "total" it and put a down payment on something else, unfortunately
Seems like all those 80s action movies where cars are flying through the air aren't unrealistic.
Action movies not realistic? It JUST CAN'T BE!!
bruh haha
Just like a car's gas tank doesn't explode when struck with a bullet. Or a lot of bullets. Or at all. Practically never.
Like you can't break down an outside door with your shoulder or a kick.
About the only thing realistic about action movies is how often people shooting at one another MISS.
I used to get frustrated with how many bullets were wasted in action scenes (I still do). Then I learned that four New York City police officers had fired 41 bullets at the innocent and unarmed migrant Amadou Diallo in 1999, striking him just SEVEN times!
This is why I choose a shotgun for home defense. Preferably one with at least a 24-round capacity. Accuracy Not Required.
@@terrifictomm I agree with all your points, except the door one. You can kick down a door, just not with one swift kick, it takes multiple strong kicks
@@Calebnelson24
Perhaps. It depends on the the quality of the door.
Seriously though. What's with emptying your handgun at hiding suspects in five seconds when they aren't even showing themselves?
At least they don't throw their empty gun away anymore, like the used to in 50s and 60s westerns. That didn't make sense to me as a seven year old.
Spent most of my life building highways so it’s kind of nice understanding the specific reasons for the different systems I have been seeing for a couple of decades. Plus you kind of explained the reason for the costly studies the often do before even beginning a project in the first place when you see all the things that need to be considered. Road work in general is not as simple as one would think. Fascinating really. I appreciate your efforts.
What kind of TH-cam name is that.
Sounds super insecure
I respect you for making that your username. Very bold of you.
Get me an internship, im a civil engineering student
lng name, why not just take: common a'hole ?
My dad used to work for the state back in the 80’s. He said roadworkers got busted…sometimes, after an accident damaged a guardrail, if the machinery was tied up…the guys would just use older cull post to reattach to guardrail. These post were barely in the ground a few inches and were basically just cosmetic.
this was a REALLY cool video, I'm glad you made it. I've always been interested in how crazy effective those cable barriers were when they were new. it's cool to have all this crash safety research served up to me like this. and I only just noticed this seems to be your entry into this style of video? holy crap what an intro, I really thought you were just another one of those 10 million subscriber info channels.
Thanks a bunch! To produce this video took a ton of research, building new skills, the belief I could do it plus an amazing community of people who gave me incredibly great feedback to get it to this point.
It was so terrible and it took painful revision after revision to get it to this point. Even now I recognize there's so much more I could do but I just had to put it out to the world and see what the reaction was.
@@Lam Know that your work is much appreciated. Thanks!
If everyone learned to accelerated reverse bhop everywhere rather than using cars it'd lead to much safer roads...
DeSinc just wants to know which crumple zone would be best when he slams into it from a reverse accelerated bhop.
Since its your intro and thus a chance to learn --
I REALLY wanted to read the deaths per (something) per year but could not make it out. Deaths per million people, so 25,000 deaths in 1920? Or deaths per million cars? The new MASH guardrails image had type that was worse. Finally (I'm going to stop complaining after this one and just watch) the next was "...this compares two studies ..." which was ENTIRELY illegible. Why bother? Why frustrate us?
One of my petty persistent complaint with YT is that the text is often too small to read ... unless I lean forward and peer, or pull the screen closer. I'm not even counting the number of times I've tried enlarging the screen.
I tried googling: type script size per screen size
but I didn't understand the results. Maybe you will. If you must use small print maybe you should read it aloud as well. "This chart show ..."
Thanks for a good video.
Oh. Recently a woman was subject to a PIT maneuver and her car rolled over.
www.khou.com/article/news/nation-world/pregnant-woman-car-flipped-pit-maneuver-arkansas/91-0f48c495-f124-44bb-af4e-437014f5a97f
The police officer who had his lights on was trying to pull her over for speeding. She slowed and put her hazards lights on, looking for a safe place to pull over. He wasn't happy and used a PIT.
The road was under construction and had barriers on both sides, I think they were what you call "F" shapes.
The officer thought she should have stopped anyhow.
Maybe there should be signs up saying "No room for shoulder stop." to make it clear to everyone.
Now she's suing the officer and the force. Oh, and Arkansas police killed 3 people this year so far using PIT.
Today’s engineers: “we need to reduce impact force”
70s engineers: “hehe car go bye bye”
70s engineer drinking a beer: *looks at freind* hey bob would u rather be impaled or flung into space
Hehe car go YEET
70s engineer: (in Beavis and Butthead style) "Cool! Yeah yeah!"
Hey they were trying!
@@SpecterNeverSpectator sh
Really interesting - however the cable barriers are hated by motorcycle riders as the cables can literally slice limbs off. Suggest a follow up covering impact on motorcycles and the crash barriers.
And also low cars, especially convertables
In Europe they call cable barriers meat grinders for that reason. Great for cars. Killers for bikers.
He even mentioned the cost lol. Civilians are not gonna buy those things.
@@fynkozari9271 Civilians are not the only people that have to worry about cost, transportation departments do not have unlimited funding. Cheaper barriers means more currently unprotected roads can receive some protection.
Just dont drive a motorcycle. Lol. If motorcyclists cared about safety, they wouldnt be riding motorcycles. Just look at the stats. The stats for motorcycle accidents really makes me question their street legality. You literally just asking to die driving one of those things. And those guard rails ain't gonna do shite when the rider gets propelled off their bike and slams their head into the ground at 70mph.
Always good to be reminded of the constant drive for improvement that happens behind the scenes
You just completely captured my attention for 15 minutes talking about road barriers and I loved it. Amazing job on this video!!
I had no clue there was so much engineering into a "jersey barrier".. Man such a cool video..
I thought Jersey's were concrete and metal was a guard rail
Right? Very cool engineering! Now we should put those wise minds to work discovering better ways to get energy without hurting the earth. And ways of being more efficient. Doing more with less and also reusing and not wasting things. 🌿👍✅
I'm honestly fascinated with how interesting and easy to learn you made it. High quality content makes any "boring" subject interesting and educational like you did here. Never noticed this much thought went into it, thanks for the knowledge and great video!
YES! Please do more of this type of content. Dash cam reviews are a dime a dozen. THIS is interesting!
In the 70s, I and my childhood friends were traveling with my dad on his work runs. We were in the bed of a camper shelled truck, when we were forced into a steel pole by another driver. The truck centered on the pole at the front bumper at about 30mph. Note, this is before seatbelt usage. Kids in the back were slammed into the back of the cab and the driver was propelled into the steering wheel. No major injuries. Why? We had hit one of the newly installed break-away poles that absorbed the impact and still kept us from careening over the overpass into freeway traffic. Roadway engineers are the silent protectors of us all!
This video just reminds me that, when done right, absolutely any subject can be fascinating.
but why do things right in school?
@@nicktw2386 lol you're talking to the wrong person, I enjoyed school.
But I can appreciate what you're getting at. Some teachers are better than others for sure.
Cheers :)
I love what you said at the end "I hope you can appreciate roads, engineers, and governments more" that's exactly how I felt while watching. Thank you!
Andrew, This is wonderful!
15 years in Civil Engineering, I've never seen such a comprehensive, easy to understand summary. Excellent work.
Yay yet another awesome free educator on youtube! I love you folks and what you do, thank you deeply.
"Media loves to sensationalise...."
100% agreed
Its kinda common sense lmao
yeah, that's pretty much the golden standard for media
Dang. Unless you've experienced it firsthand, it's hard to comprehend just how brutal traffic collisions can be until you see this type of footage
Unbelievable how impressive these devices are. I don’t remember being taught about trying to use these at any point until now. In the event of catastrophic brake failure, these could safe more lives than just the driver.
Cool learning about things I see every day on the commute. I had a general idea of their purpose but now I feel I have a better understanding of why they were chosen over all the other options.
The cable barrier is just like an string egg slicer for the bikers, i think. I saw them appeared in my city recently and that was the first thought that popped up in my mind when i first seen it.
I can attest to that. One of my coworkers at work lost both of his legs from those cable barriers last year from a motorcycle accident at around 40 mi/h.
@@MBG141 It will also not be a pleasant experience if you are on a Convertible, Casey Putsch goes really in depth on it on a video, and tells the story about some kid who got decapitated on a corvette, really fucking sad
Vulnerable road users will always be ... vulnerable, whether it's wire, concrete, or whatever.
Yeah I was thinking, if the cable breaks the energy in that would be such an unbelievably powerful whip. Think I read something about a guy on the deck of an aircraft carrier losing a leg or two to broken cables they use to stop jets.
@@rockyfalldownstairs When a cable guide rail breaks, the wire whips away from the car that broke the wire. If cable guide rail is installed in the correct location (e.g. open median of rural roads) there is not likely to be anyone around to get hit by the broken wire.
Great video! Should definitely make more videos like this!
I know that magpie from a mile away
i did a thing make a rocket powered road legal car and make it drive into a concrete barrier at 350mph
oh god...
you should make a vid of making your own(more effective) crash barriers
it's the magpie
This is a professional level documentary. You easily doubled my knowledge base. First rate job.
This was really well done. I didn't know there was so much depth to road barriers.
Thanks Jackson!
wow awesome! very rare! high quality content that takes a lot of effort to create
Thanks for the warning that this quality is rare. I was nearly about to subscribe.
@@agepatterson he means by rare, that is not very abundant on this platform (or any other platform for that matter) - if it was a joke don't r/woosh me i am currently using 10% of my brain after exams :p
Weh ada si Abang disini😂
Where?
@@werkhaye fuck reddit just don’t even mention it, the joke is so dead and it was never funny. if anyone r/WOOSHES u it doesn’t matter as it’s just childish, they are a waste of air and bytes on the internet.
This was much more interesting than I thought it would be, now I'm going to be checking out barriers every where I travel
You test them too?
Wow your channel will blow up. Seriously high quality content. I loved it
All he needs to do, is to make more videos like this.
Thank you
Ikr
Yeah I watched 2 minutes of this and immediately subbed
Thanks! I hope so too. Great job with your channel, I love learning about new categories of TH-cam. Keep up the great work yourself!
I seriously show this video to people as an example of a subject I never thought would be interesting but is here.
It’s said that teacher makes a subject fun to learn or not, so you’ve done an excellent job on this.
I love how this is very technical information presented in a way that doesn't dumb it down yet also accessible for the average layman!
I used this to write an essay on road barriers in school. It was perfect.
Haha, thanks, I chuckled at the thought. It's good information so I hope you do well
By any chance can you share that essay here I’m curious to see it
It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realize this was Toronto.
The instant the video started, i knew he was standing on the 400 overpass on hwy7
Oh shit I thought this was America
A few days ago One of those guard rails that collapses to the side saved my life on the highway. Thank u to the people designed and installed them.
This was such a cool video, thanks for posting!
Wassup check mark
Oh hey @dankwheelie whatcha doing up in heuhhh
Legend
Hi
@@justinsniffen9491 heuhh??
The algorithm has blessed me again. I learned so much!
I've always seen different types of barriers on the road and wondered how safe they were. This video really helped to clarify that! Also major props to the engineers that created them to help save our lives in case of collision!!
Crazy to think how it costs thousands of dollars to prevent a single hazard from crashes caused by a single distracted or inept driver. We could save so much money and lives by improving public transport and not driving everywhere all the time
YES!
Can't remember exactly, but i've heard that cable barriers are extremely dangerous to motorcyclists, literally tearing riders apart, that' s the main concern with them.
Vroom Vroom
That and serious neck injuries in small car drivers.
In fairness, I have never seen a motorcyclist win against a concrete barrier either.
@@JohnSmith-cn4cw or any barrier for a matter of fact lol
yea there called cheese graters in nz because people go through them like cheese through a grater
Very impressive video, great work 👏
Thanks Ben!
I literally have no idea who you are but i agree
ok
That MSKT is an incredible bit of engineering! I love seeing that kind of simple, outside-the-box design solution.
Excellent work on the video! I'll never look at roadsides the same way now ;)
Which is absolutely great! More drivers need to be aware of everything going on around them when they're driving!
That clear zone, or I call “grassy median” is the exact reason why I saved my car at over 80mph when I narrowly missed a 200pound deer jumping onto a two lane highway dead into the night with only my high beams as a source of light.
Hi Andrew, thank you for this, it’s a fascinating and important subject. As a motorcyclist, I wanted to highlight that cable barriers are fatal for most collisions where a human hits a cable at speed. I believe French highways in particular chose to avoid cable barriers in favour of concrete, mainly because (probably) non-fatal incidents involving motorcyclists became fatal because of the catastrophic impact of humans with cables/steel uprights. I would love to hear more from you on this specific topic. Thanks, excellent video!
I feel like slamming head on into a concrete wall is going to be just as deadly to a motorcyclist
@@Shaun_Jones a motorcycle rider can lose control but manage to slow down before hitting the barrier. This may be survivable on solid barriers but cable barriers focus the force and can make it more deadly for the cyclist. Whether it is worth it to put up more expensive barriers depends on the use of that road. You'd have to consider how many cyclists use the road and how much barrier can be afforded. If putting up concrete or steel barriers significantly limits the amount of barrier that can be installed then it may be better to use cables anyway as it will save more lives overall.
I'd rather take a solid hit to a concrete barrier than be beheaded on an 10mph lowside when my helmet edge gets caught on an upright or cable as I slide by on my arse!
You cannot bend the laws of physics, but you can minimise the risk and method of injury application even if it also ultimately ends up fatal (die some days later rather than lose one's head)!! I chose solid flat concrete 90% of the time
@@johnh3095 I would like to point out that, at least here in the states, there are not many motorcyclists driving down the interstate, at least not compared to car and truck drivers. With that in mind, it’s reasonable to assume that safety standards have less consideration for motorcycles than in other countries. Also, I’ve seen wire barriers, but never as the primary protection. Rails and concrete are used for the right side (which is the one we drive on and the side that directly faces hazards), and wire is only on the median, and it’s usually not right next to the road but placed closer to the middle of the grass, to stop vehicles from crossing into the oncoming traffic side.
@@Shaun_Jones no dramas my friend. We don't have many cable barriers in the UK at all, only the post and solid concrete type as we do not have the free space available to accommodate a stretching cable and car! They'd likely hit something like a tree, some earth bank or a building.
Happy new Year to you all. Let's hope none of us ever have to experience hitting any type of barrier in 22 & beyond!
Cable barriers look like they're designed to shred motorcyclists.
Looking at all the barriers, I dont think a motorcyclist would do well hitting any of them
@@ValentineC137 I would much rather hit a concrete barrier at a low angle than cables. At a high angle you're fucked either way.
@@lucaprinselaar Yea I think my odds of Evel Knieveling up the side of a concrete barrier are better than my odds of coming out in one piece with a cable barrier. I was in an accident and hit a car that was making an illegal left in front of me once while I was going like 85kmph and came out with no broken bones so not really much difference between that and hitting concrete really.
When a motorcyclists hits a cable barrier whatever side the ambulance is determines which bits get picked up first, cable barriers may be cheap but they are very dangerous to motorcyclists.
I’ve never seen them in Europe, so I think they might not be as good as concrete or guard rails.
I never thought I’d be appreciating guardrails but this is super neat!
what kind of person crashes right into the beginning of a guard rail? a dude died right near my neighborhood cuz he crashed into a guard rail and it went right through his windshield, these are not safe
This video is really excellent, every time I see a concrete barrier for the past two years, I think of this. Truly a fascinating look at something that blends into the backround.
This was interesting and all, but I just learned a big fact which is the government loves to use abbreviations.
Fun fact: The US government has an abbreviation for every weapon, vehicle, and occupation within the military. There's nothing they will not abbreviate.
Man, what a great video. Andrew really knows how to pace things. When 15 minutes of information feel like 5 minutes of entertainment, you've done a marvelous job.
Watching youtube at 2am in the morning and the algorithm gives me this.
I'm not even mad.
haha omg same bro. We must be in the same time zone
Me too, It seems that the algorithm always suggest this vid at 2 am.
The concrete barriers saved my brothers life last year. He works as a Highway patrol officer in Florida. He had a high speed chase back then where another car crashed into his patrol vehicle from behind. Glad he didn‘t die. Luckily the guy who made him crash was arrested later. I hope that’ll never happen again soon
Really well put together, just right amount of detail, engaging entire way. The crumple-cable MSKT footage is very satisfying to watch, without the knowledge of what's behind it it would look scary.
Down here where we use “miles” we have nice metal mile-marker posts designed to cut motorcyclists in half if they slide off the edge of the highway.
Price of looking cool...
@@edsloan8535 price of cheap speed
Motorcycle to unicycle
@@johnprice4140
Motorcycle to sippy cup
@@armybeef68 motorcycle to closed casket funeral
This randomly popped up in my recommendations, and I did not know that I wanted to learn about this. This is a great educational video and very well explained! Props to you buddy! Keep up the great work :-)
I totally agree with you @tim95e38!
LoL same
Ive always wanted to be an automotive engineer and your videos help with that. Thank you.
I can hear my dad saying "well, you're not supposed to hit the barrier"
😂
True tho
Best way to avoid an accident is avoid the accident... So your dad had it right....
@@kramnull8962 No such thing as an accident. They are all negligence on the part of someone.
@@MAGAMAN I never believe absolutes like that
"Why road barriers stopped killing drivers"
Me: "well it's their job not to"
Their job is to contain the car on the road.
@ピーター anime sucks
@@o.v4069 ???
@@o.v4069 your mum doesn't love you?
@@o.v4069 what?
In 2013, my friends sister was killed in a big pile-up in southwestern Ohio. She was killed by a cable guard rail snapping and striking her in the head after the crash took place. It was a very sad year.
Its sad
It snapped because it was a pileup, cables are good only for a few incidents
Not a fan of cables at all. Would prefer medians to just be a ditch. Tow bill to get out.
I just ran across this vid and I was amazed at the bewildering array of road barriers in existence to protect drivers ! I find the amount of engineering that goes into this both mindboggling and fascinating...
I love deep dives like this. It's amazingly detailed and mind expanding to get an insight into the way you have to think to design these kinds of safety equipment.
Yeah, gotta be like “alright, we really need this barrier to be able to stop a 16 year old kid who can’t stay off their phone two seconds, and is doing 85+ mph, or a 34 year old guy who had a few too many, and couldn’t just wait five minutes for a cab to pick him up.”
Very informative - I really enjoyed this video!
Thanks Jared! I just found out about your channel, and It seems like interesting content. Definitely will check it out!
Man, lots of Chanel’s commenting ain’t it
I did too. I like the cordian cushion thing
So many verified channels commenting. Sus
"Nearly 6 people died in this car pile up, incredible" -That news dude lol
🔊 🎉 🔊 ‼️❗️ INCREDIBLE ❗️‼️🔊🎉🔊
so many lost their lives
Incredible!
i mean if i saw Hundreds pile for Crashed Cars and only 6 death i would be supprised too
@@user-bo1ej5im9t Yah but choose your words wisely 🤣
Earth was destroyed! INCREDIBLE!