Caltrans safety device saved driver's life

[ZLoth]

From KCRA:

Caltrans safety device saved driver's life

A state transportation department maintenance truck was hit from behind along Interstate 5 on Wednesday afternoon near Manteca.

The Caltrans truck had an attenuator, or a large, yellow safety device, on its back.

A witness who saw the crash from his office said the driver of the car that hit the truck is lucky to be alive.

FULL ARTICLE HERE

[PHLBOS]

Not to belittle the fact nor testimonial but it sounds like that attenuator did what it was designed/intended to do.  Kudos.

[hbelkins]

We had someone hit a crash cushion a few months ago. The driver dozed off. The device probably saved our workers' lives.

[cpzilliacus]

We had someone hit a crash cushion a few months ago. The driver dozed off. The device probably saved our workers' lives.

Virginia DOT has always called them crash cushions as well, and was also a relatively early adopter of them (I recall seeing them in the 1980's, and by the 1990's, almost every VDOT truck doing maintenance in or near live traffic had one).  And yes, they work.

Maryland State Highway Administration has been much slower to adopt them for reasons not clear to me.  Maryland Transportation Authority uses them on nearly all of their dump trucks. 

Relatively recently, I have seen trucks using the "Scorpion" attenuator, which looks a little like the tail of a scorpion when it is is in the "up" position.

[ZLoth]

Not to belittle the fact nor testimonial but it sounds like that attenuator did what it was designed/intended to do.  Kudos.

It was a road-related story that I thought was worth sharing.