AN INVESTIGATION OF FATAL AND SERIOUS INJURY WIRE ROPE SAFETY BARRIER CRASHES USING CRASH DATA AND SOFTWARE SIMULATION

The thesis looks at wire rope safety barrier crashes that result in fatal and serious injury outcomes. Various crash datasets and computer simulation were used to investigate reasons for these severe crash outcomes. Findings suggested the injury outcomes were related to crash aspects such as impact speed and angle, and the possibility of adverse crash outcomes such as barrier penetration. These crash dynamics were found to be affected by design features of the wire rope safety barrier.