• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.185-191
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• 2012

Rear collisions to expressway work trucks result many casualties these days. But, currently, no special measure are being taken except deploying sign trucks behind the working trucks. In the U.S and Europe, trucks with TMA(Truck Mounted Attenuator) are being deployed behind the working truck, which is regarded as the standard method for work area safety, thereby reducing the fatality rates and property damage tremendously. Also, standard for the performance of TMA are established and TMA can be used in the field only when it satisfies the standard. In Korea, neither the standard for nor any guide to the TMA exists. In the situation some manufacturer developed TMA without proper performance evaluation and marketed limited number of TMAs in the field. In the study, NCHRP350, which is the performance standard of expressway safety features of U.S. and materials related to the TMA standard in Europe have been reviewed to establish the Korean performance criteria. Based on the review, and incorporating existing Korean standard for crash cushions, domestic standard for TMA has been proposed and applied in developing Korean TMA and crash tested it to verify the performance. The original design developed was crash tested and modified. The newly proposed design was studied using impact simulation program several times. Modifications were made after each simulation and prototype was built and crash tested as per the newly established TMA performance criteria.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.10-19
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• 2014

Despite the movement of safe traffic by the Korean government to reduce deaths in traffic accidents, the casualties increase year by year. In particular, more and more accidents and casualties are reported from car collisions from the back of the vehicles parked for managing traffic accidents on the road, cleaning main roads and medial strips, repairing roads. In order to response to these accidents, the government should take protective measures for road users. In the last decade, seventy-one cases have been reported to occur during highway repair and maintenance. As a result, eight persons were killed and seventy-six were injured, showing the high death rate of 11.3 percent. Therefore, it seems urgent to take some actions against it. The United States and European countries legislate that vehicles of road repair and maintenance should be mandatorily equipped with shock absorber at the back. Korea, however, does not have such legislative measures, which are needed at this time to protect workers on the road. This study compares the performance of the traditional shock absorber for road maintenance vehicles with that of the rear safety guard using air bag, manufactured in accordance with related laws in Korea. Based on the results of the 60km/h rear collision test, this paper proposes improvements in related laws and regulations in an attempt to reduce casualties.