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Classic odds, innovative ways

Take a good look at the accompanying photograph. They are drums or barrels as the manufacturer prefers to call them. They look like large prayer drums outside Buddhist gompas, which contain papers with prayers written on them. As the pilgrims walk pass, they rotate the drums and set them in motion. This, the Buddhists claim, sends a prayer to the Heavens.

Classic odds, innovative ways

Next step: The guardrails have been developed by a South Korean company



H. Kishie Singh

Take a good look at the accompanying photograph. They are drums or barrels as the manufacturer prefers to call them. They look like large prayer drums outside Buddhist gompas, which contain papers with prayers written on them. As the pilgrims walk pass, they rotate the drums and set them in motion. This, the Buddhists claim, sends a prayer to the Heavens.

Now, a South Korean company has come up with a revolutionary invention: the Rolling Guardrail. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Rolling Guardrail is inspired by the Buddhist prayer drums. 

It is the result of an inventive mind that is continuously looking to improve an existing system. And in this case, save lives. The company claims that it does prevent fatal accidents more than the traditional guardrails.

The Rolling Guardrails rotate easily on a central axis and are made of ethylene vinyl acetate contained in metal frames. Ethylene vinyl acetate has a very high luminescent quality, which makes it extremely visible at night and in poor visibility conditions like snow, fog and rain.

This is how it will work. When a vehicle, travelling at speed, will come into contact with the barrel, the impact energy will be converted into rotational energy. The rotational energy will push the vehicle forward into the next barrel until the vehicle is pushed back onto the road or the energy exhausts itself and the vehicle come to a halt. In a traditional guardrail, grouted into the ground, the vehicle will push and attempt to break the barrier.

Let us put physics aside for a moment and listen to what Ella Fitzgerald has sung: “When an irresistible force meets another irresistible force, something gotta give!” That something is usually the car! And depending on the speed and other external factors, the car and occupants could have serious injuries.

To prevent this, the upper and lower frames of the metal guardrails are designed to protect the steering system of both small and larger vehicles from loss of function. This is an excellent example of a design being followed through to the very logical conclusion. For, if the car had been pushed back onto the road with little damage to the vehicle, but a damaged steering mechanism, the vehicle would be loose cannon on the road! Having solved one problem, another dangerous situation would be created.

The engineer/inventor had a vision and comprehension of the road conditions and has invented a very practical solution. Simple and effective! The company manufactures different types of rolling barriers. The ones on corners will be different from the ones on the central verge on a straight road. 

Our government is on a road building overdrive. However, they are poorly designed, which results in crashes and horrifying fatalities, the highest in the world.

The antidote for poor road design could be the Rolling Guardrails. They could be lifesavers on a bend. On a straight road, they could prevent the vehicle from jumping the central guard rail and ploughing into oncoming vehicles. 

The guard rails being installed today are of an outdated design and inadequate, and, in most cases, fail to serve the purpose for which they are being installed. Installing Rolling Guardrails would be a leap into the 21st century.

Happy motoring!

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