Guardrails may have initially been meant to protect both motorists and pedestrians from straying into dangerous or off limit areas, but are they now ‘killer guardrails?’
On Tuesday morning, Nyeri Governor, Wahome Gakuru’s car veered off the road, crashing into a guardrail along the Murang’a-Thika road.
The rails that should have saved his life, caused his untimely death by going through his car, injuring two other occupants.
In the US, a company, Trinity Industries, was sued for a slight oversight in their guardrails that killed people and left others disabled.
The company, could have helped save lives should they have altered the rails by an inch; from 5 to four inches.
A guardrail, experts say should ‘absorb the impact, even that of a head on collision.’
Three states; Nevada, Massachusetts and Missouri banned railings.
READ: Managing Director Waithaka Waihenya Exits KBC After Seven Years
In London, some councils in the United Kingdom banned rails after it was found that the rate of injury to pedestrians decreased three times faster after getting rid of the ‘killer guardrails.’
In Kenya, however, National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) found that the rate of pedestrian deaths had come down to 18 per cent.
The rails, they said help decrease the number of deaths up from 1,300 in 2015 to 1,097 in 2016.
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