Impact Recovery System’s SlowStop moves into the fast lane

For around three years Texas-based Impact Recovery Systems had been distributing the modular made-in-Belgium SlowStop Bollard, previously called SoftStop, in the United States. But since November, the company bought the world rights for the system from its inventor, Gerard Wolters.
April 5, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Greg Hannah of Impact Recovery Systems with the SlowStop Bollard

For around three years Texas-based 543 Impact Recovery Systems had been distributing the modular made-in-Belgium SlowStop Bollard, previously called SoftStop, in the United States. But since November, the company bought the world rights for the system from its inventor, Gerard Wolters.

The basic sprung unit is a cast iron riser housing a large natural rubber ring – elastomer – into which a hollow steel bollard tube is inserted. Installation starts with the base’s being screwed onto a concrete surface. No special securing tools are needed, nor core drilling.

The beauty of this construction, said Impact Recovery president Greg Hannah, is that various preventative barrier formations can easily be configured.

The posts are able to bend 20 degrees from vertical as it progressively absorbs energy to soften the impact of the vehicle. This makes the product also ideal for distribution centres and any areas where slow moving vehicles may come into contact with objects, such as warehouses and distribution centres.

The company’s “bread and butter” product is its mechanical steel spring sign posts that are favoured by municipal and regional government’s since 1991, said Hannah, who has been with the company since it started. Many are used as street furniture for directional road signs. But there is also a large market in Europe and the United States for use along bicycle paths, he said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Pioneering sensors collect weather data from moving vehicles
    January 20, 2012
    ITS International contributing editor David Crawford foresees the vehicle as 'sentinel being'
    Read More
  • Aptiv: we need overhaul of AV nervous system
    August 20, 2019
    Autonomous vehicles are changing a lot of things: Aptiv’s Christian Schäfer suggests that we need to look again at traditional approaches to vehicle architecture to find viable options for the future
    Read More
  • Full analysis: Massive US EV infrastructure plan
    February 21, 2023
    The White House has announced a huge financial boost, new standards, and major progress for a made-in-America national network of EV chargers to support the future of US EV charging
    Read More
  • IBTTA: industry must commit to trust and accountability
    August 23, 2018
    Without a commitment to trust and accountability, the modern road tolling industry would not have the bedrock which it requires – and which customers demand, says IBTTA’s Bill Cramer When Tim Stewart, executive director of Colorado’s E-470 Public Highway Authority, settled on ‘trust and accountability’ as the themes for his year as IBTTA president, it was a very deliberate choice. Stewart was looking for language that would help deliver the global tolling industry’s message of service excellence to cust
    Read More

Highlighted Content