It has been close to a year since the cable barriers were installed in the median of Highway 2 in between Calgary and Red Deer and they have already helped to reduce the severity of collisions along the roadway, say police patrolling the area.
“In the past years I have seen a lot of collisions in which there were injuries that there wouldn’t have happened had there been the barriers,” said Cpl. Al Nickolson, with the Highway 2 integrated traffic services unit in Innisfail.
“Now (with the barriers) we are not getting the vehicles going across the median and into oncoming traffic.”
The barriers are comprised of metal poles and wires with slack in them designed to absorb the impact of an oncoming vehicle. The poles are designed to break off and the wire absorbs the shock of the vehicle helping to minimize the damage to the vehicle and the risk of injury to the occupants in the case of a collision.
The barriers were commissioned by the Alberta government and are not a new concept but in fact one that has been implemented in other areas for a long time.
Places such as Europe have barriers on all major highways, said Nickolson.
The cable barriers are now being used instead of metal guardrails because of the Alberta weather conditions. Snow banks up against the metal barriers and often ends up causing another hazard to drivers in case of a collision, said Nickolson.
Nickolson said a 30-vehicle pile-up that happened near Bowden several weeks ago could have ended worse. The collision was contained to one side of the highway unlike the 70-vehicle pile-up Nickolson said occurred near Olds last May when vehicles on both sides of the highway were involved in one collision.
On a busy highway corridor such as Highway 2 there are a number of factors that increase risks from drivers travelling down the highway.
“Highway 2 can be a beautiful road at times but all of a sudden it can get dangerous,” said Nickolson.
One of the common causes of collisions on the highway in the winter is the use of cruise control on icy roads, he said.
“When there is ice on the road and cruise control kicks in it can send a vehicle out of control.”
A high volume of long distance travelers such as people driving from Calgary to Edmonton also increases the possibility for risks such a driver fatigue.
“You get people who doze off on the road when they are travelling long distances, they fall asleep and go into the centre median,” said Nickolson. In both of these situations those at-risk drivers who end up in the median now go into the barriers instead of oncoming traffic.
However, despite the safety benefits, the barriers do limit access to both sides of the highway for emergency vehicles.
There is one crossover just north of Innisfail but the next isn’t until Old Pole Road, and it does take longer to get to some locations, said Nickolson.
“But at the same time you don’t want the general public to be able to be driving through the medians either.”
