NAPLES, FL- Nbc-2.com writes that two collisions occurred in Naples this week. The first incident led to severe injuries, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. In that accident, two vehicles at Collier Boulevard and Veronawalk Boulevard jumped over the guardrail. Roadblocks were used to prevent traffic from traveling through the area. A Collier County Sheriff’s […]
Two motor vehicle guardrail accident
NAPLES, FL- Nbc-2.com writes that two collisions occurred in Naples this week. The first incident led to severe injuries, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. In that accident, two vehicles at Collier Boulevard and Veronawalk Boulevard jumped over the guardrail. Roadblocks were used to prevent traffic from traveling through the area.
A Collier County Sheriff’s Office vehicle was involved in the second incident. Police stated that the crash was not the officer’s fault. The area was congested as investigators worked on both of the scenes.
Guardrails are designed to protect vehicle occupants when a driver veers off the road. In the best-case scenario, a car that leaves the road will come to a stop without colliding with anything or anyone. However, many roads throughout the United States have embankments, water, trees, or other obstacles that would prevent a safe stop of a vehicle that drove off the pavement. In many cases, traffic engineers will place barriers such as guardrails in place to prevent a car from leaving the road in a place where doing so would be especially dangerous. Of course, a car might sustain damage from striking the guardrail itself, but when guardrails are installed, this is considered, and the engineers have determined that the consequences of a crash with the guardrail would be less devastating than the alternative.
A guardrail may cause a vehicle to slow down, or deflect the car away from the obstacle. Of course, in some situations, the guardrail will lead to severe crash consequences. The goal is not to prevent all crashes, but to reduce the risk of the most serious collisions. If cars hit at an unexpected angle, or at higher speeds than the rails are designed to accommodate, the guardrails may not function as intended.
