The invention relates to a safety protection for accident prevention, associable to the supporting posts of road barriers, such as guardrail barriers.

According to known technique, side barriers are installed along roads, such as the well-known guardrail barriers, made with beam elements fixed on supporting posts. A typical guardrail barrier is made essentially with a"W"beam, supported by steel posts about 1 to 2 m high, generally having a C-or U-cross section.

Such barriers are efficient in preventing vehicles from falling off the road, and from the very dangerous event of jumping into the opposite carriageway. However, they may constitute themselves a danger for so-called"weak"users not protected by the compartment of a vehicle, namely cyclists and motorcyclists, especially when they are coming from the opposite way and are thrown out their cycle due to a fall or a crash.

The main danger is represented by the sharp edges of the posts: unfortunately, it is not rare to hear about cyclists or motorcyclists involved in an accident, who hit the steel posts of a guardrail with very serious injuries.

This problem is not easy to solve, as a different barrier, designed to be less dangerous to cyclists and motorcyclists, may be uneffective to withstand the collision of a car or truck. Moreover, the substitution of existing barriers with new ones would evidently be an expensive and

unpractical solution to the problem posed.

The purpose of the invention is to solve the above problems, that is to reduce the danger represented by supporting posts of existing road barriers and guardrails, in particular for cyclists and motorcyclists, without the need of replacing said barriers.

More in detail, a purpose of the invention is to protect weak users, like cyclists and motorcyclists, from the risk of an impact against the sharp edges of the supporting posts. Another purpose is to provide the supporting posts with a certain shock absorbing capability, in order to reduce to a minimum their dangerousness. Then, a further aim of the invention is to provide a cost-effective and practical solution to the above stated problem.

These purposes are achieved by a safety protection, applicable to a supporting post of a road barrier, said safety protection having a body made of an elastic deformable material, with a cylindrical development and an open-ring cross section providing a longitudinal front opening, by means of which said body can be fitted to embrace said supporting post of the road barrier.

For the purposes of this description, a body with a"cylindrical development"is to be intended in a general way, that is a cylindrical or prismatic body, with a circular or generally curved cross section and a continuous side surface, or even a polygonal section with a side surface made of a plurality of faces.

The application to the supporting post, as it will be explained more in detail hereinbelow, requires to wide the sides of the body, in

correspondence to said front opening. To make this operation easier, the body has preferably a portion with a reduced stiffness, opposite to the front opening and substantially acting as an elastic hinge.

In a preferred embodiment, said body essentially comprises an inside wall and an outside wall, that are joined together in correspondence of the front opening. The inside wall and outside wall are preferably cylindrical, coaxial and with a substantially circular section.

For obtaining a firm coupling to the post of the barrier, the inner wall may be provided with teeth extending towards the central axis of the body.

According to further, preferred aspects of the invention, the inside wall and outside wall are linked by radial ribs, that may be straight or curved, which reinforce the structure of the body but, at the same time, allow its elastic deformation for absorbing the energy of a shock.

The preferred material is a plastic material, for example high density polyethylene (HDPE).

The protection is easy to install on the supporting posts of existing guardrail barriers. Embracing the supporting post, the protection covers the sharp edges and prevents from direct hits against them; moreover, the body of the protection has a structure that allow elastic deformation and shock absorption capability, that is a crucial factor in case of an accident.

The invention is further described hereinafter, with reference to some preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings

by way of non-limitative examples, wherein: Fig. 1 shows a safety protection according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, fitted on a C-shaped post; Fig. 2 is a cross section of the protection of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 e 4 are cross sections of two further embodiments of the protection; Fig. 5 shows some further details according to a more preferred version of the embodiment of Figs. 1-2.

Referring now to the drawings, the invention provides a safety protection applicable to the supporting posts of a road barrier, in order to embrace them and cover their sharp edges. Fig. 1 shows the safety protection fitted on a post B like those of common guardrail barriers.

The protection comprises a body 1 with a cylindrical development, made of an elastically deformable material. The body 1 has an open- ring cross section, as seen in Figs. 2 to 4, with a longitudinal front opening 5.

In a preferred embodiment, the body 1 comprises an outside wall 2 and an inside wall 3, joined together in correspondence of said front opening 5. The enclosed drawings show embodiments wherein the outside wall 2 and inside wall 3 are made by cylindrical, coaxial surfaces, covering an angle close to 360°, and are joined by side portions 4. These side portions 4, depending on the radius, may be well recognizable, like those in Fig. 4, or may be smoothly joined and confused with the walls 2 and 3, like those in Fig. 3.

Other equivalent embodiments (not shown) are possible, for

example with the body 1 having a curvilinear cross section or a polygonal (e. g. octagonal) cross section; in this last case, the inside wall 3 and outside wall 2 are each made by a plurality of plane faces.

The body 1 has preferably a portion with a reduced stiffness, much less compared to the stiffness of the rest of the body itself, thereby acting as an elastic hinge. The preferred position of this low-stiffness portion is opposite to the front opening 5. In the shown examples, the low-stiffness portion is obtained with a solution of continuity 6 of the inside wall 3; as an alternative it may be obtained by a portion of the walls 2 and 3 with reduced thickness, or realizing the body 1 substantially with two halves joined by a strip, said strip being thin enough to bend easily.

Referring more in detail to the shown embodiments, the inside wall 3 comprises grasping teeth or reliefs 8, extending towards the axis of the body 1. Said teeth 8 prevent the body 1 from rotating on the post B, for the purpose of maintaining the correct mounting position.

Walls 2 and 3 define an interspace 9, and are linked by a plurality of ribs 7 through said interspace 9. The ribs 7 may have various shapes, the enclosed figures showing some examples: the more preferred shape is that of Figs. 1 and 2, wherein the ribs 7 have a substantially circular cross section; in the version of Fig. 3 the ribs 7 have a curved profile; in the version of Fig. 4 the ribs 7 are radial and straight.

According to the embodiment of Figs. 1-2, the body 1 may be seen as two walls 2 and 3, defining the interspace 9 and joined together by

tubular elements placed in said interspace 9 and tangent to the walls.

The ribs 7 reinforce the whole structure of the body 1, but allow its deformation during a shock. Said ribs 7 act as elastic elements between the outside wall 2 and the inside wall 3, with a particularly good efficiency given by the embodiment of Figs. 1-2.

In practice, ribs 7 realize an elastic suspension for the outside wall 2, which significantly improves the shock-absorption capability. For this reason, ribs 7 are preferably located so that, when the protection is installed on the post, they are aligned with the sharp edges of the post (see Fig. 1), where danger, in case of impact, is potentially greater, and the protection must offer the maximum shock-absorbing effect.

Other features, not shown, include a reflector strip, that may be applied to the device or inserted in seats or cuts provided e. g. on the side portions 4; or a rigid clamper, to be pressed on the edges of the side portions 4, when the device is already mounted. Said clamper may be useful to prevent an accidental detachment from the post, due to serious impacts.

The side portions 4 may comprise engaging means to secure the protection on the post. Said engaging means may be of male-female type, or equivalent.

A preferred embodiment is shown in Fig. 5: a first tooth 10 is protruding from one of side portions 4, and engaged in a corresponding seat 11 provided on the other side. The tooth 10 and seat 11 extend for about 1-2 cm in the axis'direction; one or even

more teeth and corresponding seats may be provided.

Engagement of the tooth 10 acts perpendicularly to the axis of the body 1, so that the side portions 4 cannot move away; however the teeth 10 is free to move in the axis direction. Disengagement is then easily obtained by pushing upwards one side portion 4, and downwards the other, slightly deforming the body 1; this operation is made easy by the low-stiffness portion opposite to the opening 5.

The protection is preferably made of plastics, for example polyethylene. Recycled polyethylene may be used, for low cost and environmental advantage. As a preferred solution, the material is HDPE, walls 2 and 3 have a thickness of about 3 mm, and the ribs 7 have a thickness of about 2 mm.

Advantageously, the protection has a single-piece structure, that is the walls 2 and 3, the side portions 4, the ribs 7 and teeth 8 are integrally formed with the body 1. The preferred process for realizing the protection is molding. Also the tooth 10 and the elements forming the seat 11, when provided, are integrally formed with the body 1.

The invention can be realized in a variety of colours, thus achieving the further advantage of making the road barriers more visible to users. It can also be customized in many ways, becoming a sort of decoration item, mainly in urban environments.

A plastic material adapted to reflect light may also be used, for better visibility in the dark.

The installation is as follows. The sides 4 are widen apart, deforming in elastic manner the body 1, and the protection is fitted to

embrace the post B. The'solution of continuity 6 makes this operation much easier, as it reduces the stiffness of the body 1 without decreasing the general shock resistance.

When released, the body 1 returns to its original shape and wraps the post B over an angle close to 360°, covering in particular the sharp edges that represent the most dangerous part.

For market convenience, the protection may be realized in one or more standard heights; to cover high or non-standard posts, a plurality of protections stacked one on the other may be used.

The invention is open to further variants concerning materials, shapes and dimensions, within the scope of the enclosed claims.