Protect Crews with New Crash Attenuator Truck

It’s no secret that motorists are easily distracted. According to Distraction.gov, “In 2014, 3,179 people were killed, and 431,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers.” Whether they are busy people texting, talking on cell phones or to passengers in their cars, grooming themselves, reading maps, using their navigation systems, watching videos, or messing with their sound system, these drivers can easily approach your work zone at regularly posted (or higher) speeds without noticing the line of slowed traffic to their left (or right).

It’s vital that you have something besides an orange cone between the 4,000-pound car traveling 50 miles per hour and your quality control officer who’s leaning over a density gauge in the middle of the lane. While a variety of crash attenuating devices exist on the marketplace, we’ll take a look at the newest offering from Curry Supply Co., Martinsburg, Pa., this month. The company is one of America’s largest manufacturers of commercial service vehicles, and has begun producing a truck-mounted crash attenuator truck this spring, primarily to protect the lives of motorists and job site workers.

A spokesperson for Curry Supply explained that at this time, the “crash attenuator trucks are sold primarily to equipment rental firms who rent them to the department of transportation, road and bridge construction companies, and municipalities. They are used on turnpikes, interstate highways and toll roads; anywhere there is likely to be heavy traffic and congestion. They are also used on rural roads, but not as often. Depending on the scope of the job, several crash attenuator trucks may be rented for the same job site.”

The first job of the crash truck is to reduce accidents. It features an attenuator and an arrow board.

The arrow board directs traffic by flashing a brightly lit arrow pattern made up of 15 or 25 amber LEDs. The large, highly visible, weather-resistant display panel is controlled from the truck cab. From inside the cab, the operator can use a control panel to fold the attenuator and arrow board into two parts when traveling.

The attenuator is designed to reduce the damage caused to equipment and vehicles if there is a motor vehicle collision at job sites. It is crash-rated up to 65 mph, which meets all federal and state regulations for impact, according to the manufacturer. It comprises strut and cartridge sections that are linked together on a support frame. The curved side rails are made from corrosion resistant aluminum tubes, which offer full width impact protection along the entire length of the unit. The side rails were designed to re-direct errant vehicles away from the rear of the truck. Two aluminum boxes are filled with a moisture-proof, aluminum honeycomb material. The boxes, together with the curved side rails, absorb the kinetic energy from an impacting vehicle. The aluminum boxes are painted with a bright yellow powder-coated finish.

For more information on the crash attenuator truck, contact Jeff Shaw, sales manager, at (814) 793-2829 or visit www.currysupply.com