The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility (MwRSF) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been leading research that saves lives on America’s highways.
But for the last 20 years, Nebraska engineers and researchers have been more widely known for developing energy-absorbing walls that have kept drivers safe at major auto racing tracks.
MwRSF researchers were honored in May with the 2017 John Melvin Motorsports Safety Award for their development of the Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) Barrier. Established in 2016, this award honors individuals, organizations or teams whose research and/or practical application represents unique, original concepts that, when applied to motorsports, cause significant positive change and elevate safety to new levels of innovation.
With funding from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Indy Racing League, and NASCAR, the team of specialists designed, developed, and crash tested the SAFER Barrier. The SAFER Barrier is a technology found on oval automobile race tracks and high-speed sections of road and street courses, absorbs and reduces kinetic energy during the impact of a high-speed crash, and thus, lessen injuries sustained to drivers and spectators.
Since the installation of the SAFER Barrier, there have been no driver fatalities in NASCAR or lndyCar events resulting from errant race cars hitting a retaining wall at a track where the SAFER Barrier was installed. The barrier design and development was led by Dean Sicking and the team from the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
On June 5, NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Michael Annett came to MwRSF to learn more about the SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barriers that protect drivers at NASCAR tracks, like Iowa Speedway in Newton, Iowa, where Annett and Sargent raced June 16-17. Iowa Speedway is the only major track in the U.S. that uses SAFER walls throughout the facility.
Annett’s visit included an overview of the SAFER barrier research and development, which began at MwRSF in 1998; a tour of the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed; and watching a full-scale crash test at the MwRSF Outdoor Proving Grounds on the western edge of Lincoln Municipal Airport.
For an overview of the day’s events, including videos of the crash test and links to media reports, click on the link below.
More details at: https://go.unl.edu/j6na