Skip to main content

More flexible workzone protection

Impact protection vehicles, often the only form of protection between workers and traffic in many road maintenance and repair operations, are designed to arrest an errant car or truck. Truck-mounted attenuators have been used for many years, but as Brent Kulp of Traffix Devices points out, advances in trailer attenuators, such as on his company's Scorpion, provide the same protection, at lower cost but with much greater flexibility. He points to the Scorpion's unique curved design, which not only redirects
January 31, 2012 Read time: 1 min
Impact protection vehicles, often the only form of protection between workers and traffic in many road maintenance and repair operations, are designed to arrest an errant car or truck. Truck-mounted attenuators have been used for many years, but as Brent Kulp of 1918 Traffix Devices points out, advances in trailer attenuators, such as on his company's Scorpion, provide the same protection, at lower cost but with much greater flexibility. He points to the Scorpion's unique curved design, which not only redirects side impacts away from exposed corners of the truck but enables the device to crush in stages upon impact, thereby reducing repair costs.

 "Trailers have been gaining in popularity over the last few years due in part to their portability and not having to have a dedicated crash truck in an agency's vehicle fleet," Kulp says.

Related Content

  • February 3, 2012
    The future of in-vehicle navigation systems
    TRL's Alan Stevens looks at the evolution and future prospects of in-vehicle navigation devices. Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) plays a crucial role in the safety of vehicles on our roads. Until we achieve full automation (and that's a debatable prospect anyway) a driver's interaction with the vehicle - all the controls, information and systems - holds a pivotal role in safe driving.
  • February 17, 2016
    Industry AMS road safety devices, crash cushions on display at Intertraffic
    Italian company Industry AMS, a designer, developer and manufacturer of road safety devices, will be focusing on crash cushions and end terminals on its stand at Intertraffic Amsterdam. The company will also be highlighting its SMA City design, a crash cushion for urban roads.
  • March 16, 2012
    Weigh in motion technology aids overweight vehicle reduction
    Innovative use of truck weighing technology is growing as strategies aimed at reducing numbers of overweight vehicles gather momentum. Business is generally good at present in the truck weighing sector in general, and weigh-in-motion (WIM) technology in particular, according to leading suppliers of systems serving to help reduce overloading. Strategies aimed at deterring excessive truck loading – cutting damage to road networks and risks to safety – vary considerably worldwide, with some governments draggin
  • September 19, 2014
    MVIS, HRS partner on workzone safety
    Mobile Visual Information Systems (MVIS) and the creator of the Intellicone temporary work zone safety system, Highway Resource Solutions (HRS), have teamed up to create the Safelane automated traffic management system and the Multisafe Smart VMS. The companies say these are the first temporary road maintenance safety solutions to combine industry-leading modular electronic perimeters and variable message signs (VMS), providing a cost-efficient method of improving the safety of both road workers and road