FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a road barrier for a vehicle and relates particularly, though not exclusively, to a roadside barrier for a motor vehicle. Typically, the present invention relates to a racetrack barrier for motor-racing vehicles such as Formula One racing cars.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION Barriers provided along a racetrack of, for example, a Formula One motor car track are designed to prevent a motor car from leaving the racetrack at high speed and possibly killing spectators who are struck by the car. The barriers are usually cast from concrete and are steel reinforced, the shape and size of the barrier depending on its application. Barriers are located on most areas of the racetrack but particularly in high-risk areas such as at and in the vicinity of corners.

An increasingly fatal problem with concrete barriers is related to the damage incurred to a motor vehicle and possibly driver and/or passenger of the vehicle when colliding with the barrier. As prize money and the prestige associated with winning Formula One motor car racing increases drivers, to be more competitive, drive faster, which consequently reduces their margin of error. Recently there has been a number of fatal accidents where Formula One racing cars have collided with a concrete barrier while travelling at high speeds.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An intention of the present invention is to provide a road barrier for a vehicle which is relatively safe for occupants of the vehicle, and people in the vicinity of the barrier when the vehicle collides with the barrier.

According to the present invention there is provided a road barrier for location beside a road for deflecting a vehicle, said barrier comprising: a support structure having a base portion adapted to be fixedly anchored to a footing; and a plurality of screens suspended from and coupled one behind the other to an elevated portion of the support structure extending from said base portion, so that when the vehicle collides with the road barrier the vehicle passes under the elevated portion and contact is initially only made with an outermost of said plurality of screens which is deflected and absorbs at least part of the vehicle's momentum, and thereafter if the vehicle passes through the outermost of said screens, one or more remaining screens of said screens may also be deflected and further absorb the vehicle's momentum so that damage to the vehicle and/or injury to an occupant of the vehicle is substantially minimised.

Typically, the supporting structure and plurality of screens are configured so that an upper edge of each of said screens is suspended from the support structure, so that, in use, a colliding vehicle can contact and deflect one or more of said screens without making contact with the remainder of the road barrier.

Typically, each of said plurality of screens beginning with the outermost of said screens is of increasingly more rugged construction than a . preceding screen so as to provide increased resistance to the force exerted by the colliding vehicle so that if the vehicle passes through one of said screens a greater force must be applied to an adjacent screen for the vehicle to pass therethrough without being halted, and at least partly retained, by said adjacent screen.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to achieve a better understanding of the nature of the present invention a preferred embodiment of a road barrier for a vehicle will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a section of a preferred embodiment of a road barrier for a vehicle according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in Figure 1 there is provided a section of a road barrier 10 for a vehicle, the barrier 10 comprising a support structure shown generally as 12, and at least one collision screen shown generally as 14 coupled to the support structure 12.

In this form of the present invention there are three (3) adjacent screens 16A, 16B, 16C, one located behind the other, oriented substantially parallel to each other. Each of the screens 16 is constructed of a wire mesh material. The first screen 16A located immediately adjacent the road is constructed of approximately 3mm diameter plastic coated wire, the second screen constructed of approximately 5mm diameter steel wire, and the third screen constructed of approximately 8mm diameter steel wire. The first screen 16A has a lining, in this example a rubber lining 18, coupled to a face of the first screen 16A adjacent the roadside. The rubber lining 18 partly covers the roadside face of the first screen 16A and is coupled thereto using a series of bolts and elongate backing plates (not shown) .

In this example of the present invention the support structure 12 comprises three (3) pairs of elongate members 20, 22, 24, respectively, a lower elongate member 20A of the pair located adjacent the ground and an upper elongate member 20B disposed above the lower elongate member 20A.

Each of the collision screens 16A, 16B, 16C is coupled between each pair of elongate members 20, 22, 24, respectively. The second and third collision screens 16B, 16C are welded along opposing longitudinal edges to the lower elongate member 22A, 24A, and the upper elongate member 22B, 24B, respectively. In this example, the first screen 16A on opposing longitudinal edges is wrapped around the lower and upper elongate members 20A, 2OB respectively and connected back onto itself using a length of wire (not shown) .

The support structure 12 further comprises a support member shown generally as 30 coupled to each of the upper elongate members 2OB, 22B, 24B. The support member 30 comprises a boom 32 connected to and integral with an anchoring frame 34 which extends at an obtuse angle to the boom 32. The boom 32 has a pair of parallel tubes 36 held apart by a series of spacer plates 38 each of substantially the same length and oriented perpendicular to the pair of tubes 36. Each of the tubes 36 is bent at an obtuse angle to form a portion of the anchoring frame 34. A truss-like arrangement comprising a series of struts 40 extends between the pair of tubes 36 which form a portion of the anchoring frame 34.

Three (3) support brackets 42A, 42B, 42C are welded to and equally spaced along the boom 32. Each of the brackets 42 is formed from a right angle member 44 having a gusset 46 welded on its outer face.. The gusset 46 extends perpendicular to the right angle member 44 and is in the shape of a right angle triangle. An edge of the gusset 46 and a portion of an edge of the right angle member 44 is welded to the boom 32. Each of the upper elongate members 20B, 22B, 24B is welded to opposing inner faces of each of the right angle members 44A, 44B, 44C, respectively.

The support structure 12 of this invention further comprises base anchoring means shown generally as 50 connected to each of the lower elongate members 20A, 22A, 24A. Each of the base anchoring means 50 comprises a coupling 52 to which a pair of prongs 54A, 54B are welded. The prongs 54A, 54B diverge at an acute angle relative to each other. An end of each prong 54, opposite the coupling 52 is bifurcated and adapted to be set in a footing, in this example in the ground.

An end of the pair of tubes 36 has a series of three (3) spacer tubes 56 located between the tubes 36 and designed to be set in the ground. The base anchoring means 50 and the support member 30 together form the support structure 12 adapted to anchor the road barrier 10 to the ground.

Assembly of the road barrier 10 will now be described in some detail, by way of example only. In this example of the present invention the base anchoring means 50 and end portion of the pair of tubes 36 are set in concrete in the ground. The lower elongate members 20A, 22A, 24A are connected to each of the base anchoring means 50 via each of the couplings 52. The upper elongate members 20B, 22B, 24B are welded to each of the support brackets 42A, 42B, 42C, respectively. Opposing longitudinal edges of the second and third screens are then welded to the lower and upper elongate members 22, 24, respectively. Opposing longitudinal edges of the first screen 16A are wound around the lower 20A and upper 20B elongate members, respectively, and the first screen 16A connected back onto itself using a wire (not shown) . The rubber lining 18 is then bolted onto a roadside face of the first screen 16A using a bolt and backing plate arrangement (not shown) .

Operation of the road barrier 10 will now be described in some detail so as to illustrate more clearly this embodiment of the present invention. The road barrier 10,

in this example, is located at various positions on a motor vehicle racetrack. The road barrier 10 will vary in configuration depending on its location on the racetrack. If for example, the road barrier 10 is located in a high risk area, such as at and in the vicinity of corners, a relatively large number of adjacent screens 16 may be used. The distance between base anchoring means 50 will also vary depending on the area of the racetrack at which the barrier 10 is located. At high risk areas of the racetrack the base anchoring means 50 may be spaced relatively close together. Likewise, support members 30 will be spaced along the barrier 10 depending on the area of the racetrack at which the barrier 10 is to be located.

When a vehicle (not shown) collides with the road barrier 10 contact is only made initially with the rubber lining 18 connected to the first screen 16A. The first screen 16A is thus deflected by the force applied by the colliding vehicle and at least part of the vehicles momentum is absorbed by the first screen 16A. If the force exerted by the colliding vehicle exceeds the tensile or breaking strength of the first screen 16A, the first screen 16A will fail and the colliding vehicle will then contact the second screen 16B. The second screen 16B is likewise deflected by the force exerted by the colliding vehicle and at least part of the vehicles momentum is absorbed by the second screen 16B. In this example, a larger force must be applied to the second screen 16B compared to the first screen 16A for the vehicle to pass therethrough without being halted. If the force exerted by the vehicle does exceed the tensile or breaking strength of the second screen 16B the third screen 16C is contacted by the colliding vehicle and absorbs the vehicle momentum thus halting any further movement of the vehicle through the barrier 10.

It will be appreciated that because each of the adjacent screens 16 acts to progressively reduce the vehicle momentum when the vehicle collides with the barrier 10 that damage to the vehicle and/or injury to an occupant of the vehicle is substantially minimised. In this example, the region located between the pairs of elongate members 20,22,24 defines a collision zone (not shown) of the barrier 10. The vehicle collides with only the screen 16 and, because there are no rigid members disposed within the collision zone sudden impact forces are substantially minimised. The safety of spectators or bystanders in the vicinity of the racetrack is not however jeopardised by the design of the road barrier 10 as the colliding vehicle is eventually halted and retained by the barrier 10.

Now that a preferred embodiment of the road barrier and its operation have been described in some detail it will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant arts that the road barrier has at least the following advantages over the prior art: 1. the road barrier is relatively safe for occupants of a colliding vehicle and people in the vicinity of a barrier according to the present invention;

2. the road barrier does not have any rigid members located in the collision zone with which a vehicle may collide and, therefore, significant impact forces on a vehicle and/or occupants of the vehicle are substantially reduced;

3. the barrier can be erected and dismantled with relative ease; and 4. the design of the barrier can be varied according to its location on the racetrack and, therefore, the likelihood of a collision, and the colliding force likely to be exerted by a vehicle.

It will be apparent to persons skilled in the relevant art that various modifications and variations can be made to

the road barrier described, without departing from the basic inventive concept of the present invention. For example, the mesh screens described herein may be substituted for any sheet material which is deflected at the time of a collision, and absorbs at least part of the vehicle's momentum so that damage to the vehicle and/or injury to occupants of the vehicle is substantially minimised. The support structure may take any configuration provided the collision screen is adequately anchored to the footing by the support structure. The barrier may be anchored to a concrete pad which then forms the footing, rather than being anchored to the ground as described above. The barrier is then transportable without being dismantled and thus can be moved between different locations relatively quickly. The road barrier may consist of a number of discrete support structures and screen elements adjoining each other, or a substantially continuous collision screen with its associated support structures. All such variations and modifications are to be considered within the scope of the present invention the nature of which is to be determined from the foregoing description.