These road safety barriers might look strange to some people, but to us they make sense.
While an area free of fixed hazards (like trees, power poles or culverts) is lower risk, the risk is not as low as it could be. These areas have risk of vehicle rollover and vehicles going beyond the cleared area.
We see less injuries by adopting continuous (flexible) barriers in the roadside. ‘Clear zones’ should be considered in the following light:
◾ Clear zones cannot deliver Safe System outcomes in isolation and should be regarded as a supporting treatment
◾ Some clear zone is better than none at all when continuous lengths of barrier cannot be installed
◾ Clear zones should be regarded as holding the potential to be a hazard in their own right in the same way that barriers are afforded this attention
◾ Clear zones should now be considered in the context of “run-out” areas where attention is focused on ensuring safe vehicle departures free of non-survivable impacts and rollover.