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BUSINESS represent high quality and innovative products but they are also highly functional, like the road barriers protecting motorcyclists. This means that the level of passive safety is continuously improving, which is a crucial point for our testing institute,” says Jiří Studnička, director of the Technical and Engineering Services Office of the Constructions Technical and Testing Institute in Prague, which is the only testing body in the Czech Republic providing testing for all safety systems on Czech roads. Road barriers help to reduce fatalities and serious accidents The main safety element on roads is drivers behaving decently. However, this is the least reliable factor. Therefore, it is necessary to provide for passive safety on roads. And this, to a great extent, is ensured by road barriers. Road barriers help to reduce fatalities and serious accidents because they are installed on risky sections of roads with rigid obstacles like trees or rocks near the roads. “Over the last 15 years, road barriers installed on risky sections of roads have helped to reduce fatalities by 38 and serious % accidents by 49%,” confirms Jiří Zlý, head of the Road Police Department of the Moravian-Silesian Region Directorate of the Police of the Czech Republic. New models of safety barriers produced by ArcelorMittal Ostrava Magnelis® = self-healing coating Innovations include the Magnelis® coating, a new form of anti-corrosion protection of steel. The Magnelis® coating will provide protection to steel road barriers for twice as long as regular hot dip galvanizing, i.e. for 40 years. This is possible thanks to the unique chemical composition of the coating, which contains aluminium and magnesium in addition to zinc. An interesting feature of Magnelis® is its self-healing capability. It protects the exposed areas that are liable to corrosion: cuts, welds, and scratches. Before steel starts corroding, a thin layer of protection containing magnesium will develop over the damaged area to shield it from climatic impacts. under the road barriers, which often causes serious injuries. At the same time, during the accident it reduces the effects of the collision of the motorcyclist with the road barrier as it partly absorbs the kinetic energy. Motorcyclist-friendly road barriers are installed alongside dangerous stretches of roads, such as long bends. They are already found on dozens of kilometers of roads in the Czech Republic. The SMART road barriers have brought the first smart solutions Between 2008 and 2012, ArcelorMittal Ostrava, in cooperation with the University of Zaragoza participated in the development of a SMART road barriers which are equipped with three types of built-in sensors. The first sensor type is able to evaluate the climatic conditions at the given location. The second type is able to notify possible problems with traffic on the road section and the third sensor type can immediately send a signal to rescue system agencies in case of a collision with the road barrier. The SMARTer road barrier as a successor of SMART road barriers Between 2015 and 2016, ArcelorMittal Ostrava, in cooperation with the University of Zaragoza and other partners, worked on the preparation of an even smarter road barrier using the most recent technologies. The main task for the new type of road barrier was to ensure not only primary but also secondary and tertiary safety, including the activation of a drone during the accident for scanning and sending up-to-date data on the current situation to rescue teams. Additionally it facilitates two-way communication, the possibility of data collection, energy self-sufficiency (solar panels) and modularity – the possibility of connecting to existing restraint systems. Micro-alloyed steel road barriers offer lower weight and improved safety parameters In 2012, the company developed a new series of restraint systems. They are made of micro-alloyed steel, which has a higher strength than low-carbon steel. This allowed a reduction in thickness from 4 to 2.8mm, representing more than a 25% reduction in weight. This makes the installation of road barriers on the roads easier. Even with less material, crash testing has confirmed better safety parameters. Motorcyclist-friendly road barriers reduce the risk of fatal accidents The company has developed road barriers with a bottom strip to improve the protection of motorcyclists. The bottom strip prevents the motorcyclist from passing POSITIV ǀ 2/2018 29