A Safety Barrier for Containing and Protecting Drivers of (Motor)

Vehicles.

Technical Field.

The invention relates to a road safety barrier for containing and protecting drivers of (motor) vehicles.

Specifically, though not exclusively, it is usefully applied for realising an effective protection for motor-cyclists who, having fallen following an accident, are pushed off the road into zones provided with road barriers in dangerous tracts such as, for example, where there are downward roadside slopes or bridges. In these tracts the road barriers are effective for vehicles, but are very often counter-productive and damaging for the actual motorcyclist who either crashes against one of the uprights supporting the barrier itself or passes between one upright and another, tumbling down slopes and flying off bridges. Background Art.

The problem at the basis of the present invention, which is to realise a protection for motor-cyclists, has been dealt with in the prior art by the use of systems relating to "points" of the barrier, which attempt to attenuate the level of severity of the impact against the uprights of the existing road barriers, and systems addressing the "continuous" aspects of the barrier, which attempt to contain the motor-cyclist on the road surface. The "points" systems are prevalently constituted by circular crown-shaped elements made of plastic, formed by many small-diameter cylinders, or made of a very deformable plastic material having a celled structure, such as polyurethane.

The "continuous" systems are prevalently constituted by longitudinally- developing modular elements either realised in a slim metal sheet, with a wedge-shaped profile, or in a rigid plastic material, having a double-waved profile clad with a layer of vulcanised rubber or a composite material using glass fibre, a double-waved profile connected to the road barrier by slim metal brackets, or flexible plastic material which once laid in position takes on a wedge-shaped profile stiffened with two strips, above and below, connected to the road barrier and to the road surface by means of plugs.

Also known is a system exhibiting modular longitudinal elements having a figure-8 profile made of rigid plastic material and support poles made of steel provided with shock-absorbers having springs of a predefined rigidity. A further known system includes rigid elements of the New Jersey type made of reinforced concrete, flanked on the side thereof facing the road by a deformable element located on the first wedge-shaped element, which can be made of various materials and possibly divided into compartments, or it can be hollow and filled with water and anti-frost, and possibly separated from the rigid element by means of interposing a layer of polyurethane. The known-type systems have been seen to be unable to provide an adequate solution to the above-mentioned problem, as they exhibit numerous drawbacks both in use and as regards the practicalities of installation. An aim of the present invention is to solve the above-cited problem by obviating the drawbacks and lacks and limitations of the prior art according to what is reported in the claims.

Advantages of the invention are its simplicity of installation, its extreme adaptability to any type of road barrier on which it will be positioned, the possibility of using recycled materials, including in the form of granules, and the minimal and easy maintenance thereof. Disclosure of Invention.

Further characteristics and advantages of the present invention will better emerge from the detailed description that follows of some preferred but non-exclusive embodiments of the invention, illustrated by way of non- limiting example in the accompanying figures of the drawings, in which: figure 1 shows a schematic and partial front view; figure 2 is a large-scale view of a schematic section made along line I-I of figure 1; figure 3 is a schematic and partial view from above; figure 4 shows a schematic and partial front view of a different embodiment of the invention; figure 5 is a large-scale view of a schematic section made along line IV-IV of figure 4; figure 6 is a large-scale view of a schematic section made along plane VI- VI of figure 4.

With reference to the figures of the drawings, 1 denotes in its entirety a first embodiment of a road safety barrier for containing and protecting drivers, in particular drivers of motor vehicles. The safety barrier 1 comprises a body 2 which is filled with loose materials of various nature and preferably in granular form or the like. They are overall provided with the ability to distribute and absorb at least a part of the energy transmitted to the body 2 by external impacts such as that produced in particular by an impact against them by a human body.

The loose materials, or at least a part thereof, must absorb not only the above-cited function but also the function of bearing on the ground with a certain weight such as to offer a certain level of resistance to displacement in a parallel direction to the ground. The body 2 is of such a size as to be positioned by the side of the road over the whole length of the tract to be made safe, possibly discontinuously, and such as not to invade the road surface itself. All the materials making up the body 2 will be provided with good properties of mechanical resistance, in particular resistance to abrasion and chemical resistance such as to be sturdy against atmospheric agents and pollutants, UV rays, and salts used for melting ice. In the illustrated embodiments, the loose materials can be of various types and can preferably comprise recycled materials, specially rendered into granules such as rubber or plastic and various aggregates.

The friction between the particles of the loose material can be varied by use of a fluid having a predefined viscosity, such as for example a tar, an oil or silicone, having also protective functions for the surface of the granules. The material the body 2 is constituted of is preferably made of a technical textile made of natural or synthetic material, comprising geotextiles, woven textiles or non- woven textiles, normal or reinforced, and composites, either woven or non-woven. If woven materials are used, they can be made with warp and weft, with insertions or any other textile technique. The size of the links depends on the piece size and granulometry of the loose materials which fill it and which are to be stably retained internally thereof, thus realising "closed-mesh" or "open-mesh" types of textiles. In some embodiments, in which the body 2 is provided with transversal internal elements arranged for example in the form of a regular mesh 11 , which have the function of maintaining the body 2 in a predetermined form, defining the section thereof.

Technical textiles are generally permeable; if necessary they can be made impermeable by means of the use of various technologies, such as for example coating or impregnating. The technical textile which probably most fully responds to the functional requirements of the present invention, i.e. relatively inexpensive production and practicality of installation, is a woven textile made of polypropylene bands or polyester with round threads. In the embodiment illustrated in figures from 3 to 5, the body 2 of the safety barrier of the invention exhibits a shape and an external structure as in the first embodiment: on the other hand, the internal part, while still tubular, exhibits a sub-division into compartments 30, 40, 50, each of which is destined to house a specific type of loose material 3, 4, 5. This internal sub-division is realised such that the compartments 30, 40, 50, arranged longitudinally, are filled with loose materials, 3, 4, 5 having different characteristics. There is at least a compartment 30 facing towards the transitable part (or the halfway line) of the road surface, which contains a loose material 3 distinguished by a high overall deformation capacity. At least one of the other loose materials contained in at least a further compartment is characterised by having a high specific weight, greater than that of the loose material 3 contained in the compartment 30 facing towards the road transit surface (or the halfway line) of the road. In this way the barrier exhibits a differentiated structure in its thickness, which performs the task of combining a layer which enables relatively soft contact with one or more layers which apart from distributing and dissipating the energy of the impact offer a greater resistance and perform an effective containing action. Normally the body 2 is kept in position by external means distributed in a predetermined order according to the longitudinal size of the body.

Should the invention be used on a private road, for example on a sports track, the body 2 can be dimensioned specifically in order to resist deformation only by force of gravity and friction, or it can have specific anchors, different from those illustrated herein.

The body 2 is generally tubular and continuous, such as to minimise damage in a case of a person impacting against an upright, and also to prevent exit from the road surface in a case of impact in the space between one pole and another. This solution is surely necessary in a case of installation where there is a roadside slope ,or on a bridge. The body 2 is generally rested on the ground with interpositioning of discrete rests. The main aim of the rests is to enable free drainage of water lying on the road surface.

In an embodiment which is not illustrated, the discrete rests are constituted by simple rest abutments applied inferiorly of the body 2 at predetermined and regular distances. The resting on the ground in the illustrated embodiments is realised by means of a corrugated element 6, fixed stably to the lower part of the body 2, and the undulations of which are arranged transversally to the longitudinal axis of the body 1 itself. This enables having a continuous and flexible element, i.e. the corrugated element, which is easily connectable to the body 2, but which rests on the ground discontinuously, such as to enable water to drain. The continuity of the element makes connection with the body 2 simple and fast, the particular shape enabling to maintain the whole body 2 flexible up to its final positioning, thus minimising bulk during storage and transport. The external means that the body 2 can be anchored to are generally uprights and/or rails and/or plugs for fixing to the road. Since normally the invention is to be positioned where there is already a road barrier for motor vehicles, the body 2 can be fixed to the rails of the barrier and/or to the uprights thereof.

This fixing can be realised using belts or elastic bands, as illustrated in figures 5 and 6.

The body 2 can exhibit a different conformation in a transversal direction too. The situation is simply indicated in figure 3 where different zones have been highlighted at the supports, abutments or uprights 7 with respect to the zones comprised between consecutively-arranged two supports, abutments or uprights 7. In these zones there is normally a different distribution of the compartments 30, 40, 50 and the relative filling with loose material 3, 4, 5. Substantially the filling of the body 2 and/or the compartments thereof can be differentiated by privileging, for the parts covering the abutments, the use of materials destined to attenuate the impact and the effects thereof as much as possible, while for the parts comprised between a support and another the resistance is maximised with the aim of containing. In any case the various parts are sewn or welded together such as always to guarantee continuity of the body and thus of the safety barrier. In some cases, for example in a case in which there is already a road safety barrier for vehicles installed on a tract of road at a position having a grassy slope, not particularly steep and ending gently, it might be preferable to adopt a solution constituted by a plurality of bodies 2 installed at the uprights of the existing barrier and possible constrained thereto by a like system to the one described herein above. A further example in which the device might be used in this "point" form might be for protecting single obstacles, such as road lamp poles or supports for road signals, edges of products etc., not only on the road itself but also on tracks destined for use by lighter vehicles, such as cycle tracks.