Highway Cable Barrier Prevents Certain Disaster

There are many different kinds of highway safety barriers that range from galvanized guardrails to cable safety barrier, and each type of barrier plays a unique role. Even the angle of a Jersey Barrier is specifically designed to deflect a vehicle and reduce the force of impact.

When looking at a cable barrier, you quickly assume there must be some give in the barrier when significant contact is made, and that would be a correct assumption. Cable barriers are designed to give way and slowly catch the out-of-control vehicle rather than abruptly stopping them.

In the video below, you can see a long-combination dump truck hurling towards oncoming traffic when a cable barrier catches it, drastically slowing down the vehicle. Although the barrier did not prevent the massive truck from entering oncoming traffic, it slowed the vehicle down enough for other vehicles to safely avoid a potentially deadly accident. If the vehicle in question was of a smaller nature, the cable barrier would have most likely been able to catch it and prevent any intrusion into oncoming traffic. Still, it is nice to see highway safety implementations working as designed.

Unfortunately, cable barriers are only beneficial for automobile and hazardous for vehicles like motorcyclists as The Drive explains here.