Passive safety
Passively safe systems are items of street furniture placed in the roadside which are designed to deform or break on impact to reduce the severity of injury to a road user in the event of an impact. These include sign posts, lighting columns and gantries. These systems are tested to the harmonised European standard EN12767.
Statistics show serious injuries and deaths are occurring each year from collisions with non-passive sign post supports. In 2004 the UK Highways Agency introduced TA89/04 - 'Use of Passively Safe Supports for Signs' to allow an alternative to the traditional structural steel poles and protective safety barrier.
TA90/04 also introduced a size limit for steel sign supports of 89mm dia. with a wall thickness of 3.2mm thick to set a size limit that could be placed on the highway without the protection of barrier unless passively safe.
Traditionally, sign post supports located at the side of the carriageway have been protected by safety barriers, which are themselves hazards. Safety barriers should only be used where the risk of injury or damage to infrastructure are greater than if they were not used. Despite this there are thousands of installations of signs that are not passively safe or adequately protected by safety barriers.
Morelock Signs Ltd can supply passively safe complete sign assemblies, using posts from the following suppliers:
More information about passive safety can be found at the following sites:
