Development of a guideline for the selection of Vehicle Restraint Systems - identification of the key selection parameters

“SAVeRS” (Selection of Appropriate Vehicle Restraint Systems) is a project funded within the CEDR 2012 Transnational Road Research Programme “Safety”. The first Work Package of the project is aimed at analysing the existing criteria for identifying the need for the placement of a vehicle restraint system and for the identification of the most appropriate performance class. For this aim both the existing national standards and guidelines and literature documents have been analysed in details. The comparative analysis of 33 national standards and guidelines covering most of Europe and several non-European Countries has shown that there are many commonalities and it is possible to identify the most frequently used parameters with reference to safety barriers. Whilst the majority of the countries have guidelines and/or standards related to safety barriers, there is generally limited guidance for other systems such as crash cushions, transitions and motorcycle protection systems. Life-cycle cost models are usually not included in the standards but few tools are available worldwide.