Researchers from the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) will conduct a tractor-tanker vehicle crash Dec. 8 to test a newly designed and significantly shorter concrete roadside barrier.
The test, which also will be live-streamed, is to take place at 1 p.m. at the MwRSF’s Outdoor Proving Grounds on the western edge of the Lincoln Municipal Airport.
Tractor-tanker crashes often make national headlines for catastrophic crashes. This barrier was designed to “upright the vehicle and prevent it from other potentially dangerous outcomes – like going over on its side or rupturing the tank and causing a large spill on the roadway,” said Cody Stolle, research assistant professor at MwRSF.
If this test is successful, the thinner, shorter barrier could lead to the first change in national standards in many decades, Stolle said.
The 80,000-pound tractor-tanker will crash into the concrete roadside barrier at 65 mph.
Those interested in viewing the crash test virtually should register via Zoom – click link below and use authentication code MatcCrashTest2021 – and an invitation with a link to watch the test will be sent closer to the test date.
More details at: https://matc.unl.edu/mwrsf/crashtest.php