Guardrails are used to separate people, structures, machinery and valuable assets from heavy forklifts weighing more than 10,000 pounds. The requirements for durability and impact resistance are demanding, yet many don’t understand what types of impacts their systems can endure, and under what circumstances. The issue is compounded by the fact that many manufacturers simply don’t provide impact ratings for their guard rails. Some companies fabricate and install home-made railing, which is likely to never have been rated at all.
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What can you do to ensure your guard railing system can protect your employees and property the way it’s supposed to?
Some manufacturers simply don’t publish impact ratings for their guard rail. This may be because they don’t want to commit to a number in print, but more likely it’s because these ratings are difficult to digest and understand. It may be that the manufacturer simply does not know what its rail is capable of withstanding. Some manufacturers use different standards to establish impact ratings, meaning that you simply can’t look at one system that claims it can withstand 12,000 pounds and compare it to another that claims it can withstand 10,000 pounds and assume the former is sturdier guard rail. To know this, you must know what standard was used to establish the rating.
No: there are no government regulations regarding guard rails, other than fall-protection railing on mezzanines or elevated platforms. Consequently, there is no standard definition of what impact ratings actually represent, and no requirement that guard rails have been tested or engineered to any particular strength. Facilities where pedestrians and forklifts operate in the same space aren’t regulated at all for floor-level applications. No requirements are set for the presence of guard rails or how heavily those rails must be built.
While there is no industry standard, many guardrail manufacturers state their products are designed to withstand a 10,000 pound collision at 4 miles per hour. The MHI (Material Handling Industry)’s Protective Guarding Group is currently working toward standards, but has not yet reached any conclusions. Various manufacturers test their systems separately.
For instance, Steel King releases its full testing methodology for its Steel Guard rail system. The company tested its system by driving an 8,000-pound, sit-down counterbalance forklift with pneumatic tires into an 8′ guard rail. The lift traveled in reverse at 5 miles per hour at initial impact. After the one-second impact, the guardrail had a 6″ dent. There was no damage to the forklift, and no observed damage to the concrete floor; no anchor bolts had been loosened, bent, or pulled out. The result for a two-rail system was a rating of 13,000 pounds.
Every manufacturer tests differently, and many will do what Steel King did, and document exactly how their ratings were calculated. Since guard rail is critical safety equipment, it’s important to know how published impact ratings were calculated and tested.
No; not at all. Facility rails are built to deflect an impact and maintain integrity. Highway rails absorb and disperse impacts. That’s why you see shredded or crumpled rails at accident scenes. When an industrial guard rail is hit, it will sustain damage, but doesn’t crumple by design. It holds its ground as best it can, where roadway rails reduce impact and slow vehicles. They’re designed to protect the car and driver, where industrial rails are designed to protect what’s behind the rail.
A fully-loaded forklift carries 8,000 to 10,000 pounds, so an adequate guard rail should be able to deflect it. However, this can be counted on the first time it’s hit. Previous collisions may reduce that rating. If you’re protecting people in a work cell, traffic aisle or other area, it’s crucial to identify and replace damaged/weakened guard railing. I recommend that you replace any damaged railing, even if it is protecting machinery or a facility wall or other areas that don’t typically have people present. Also, look at the way the impact has been transferred to the floor. Seemingly minor impacts can reduce guard rail effectiveness.
It changes the game, and for forklifts it changes the game a lot. Remember, these ratings apply to vehicles at whatever the standard was established at (usually 4 or 5 miles per hour) by the manufacturer and testing engineer. Any faster, and the ratings decline. Forklifts going even one mile per hour faster will hit much harder due to weight and density. OSHA recommends that lifts travel no faster than 5 MPH, which is more than fast enough in most circumstances. Lower speeds help prevent accidents in the first place, but also mean that rails and bollards can do their jobs and stop the lift if they must.
It absolutely does. Most ratings assume a 90-degree impacts. Ratings for a forklift traveling backwards can be different than if the vehicle was moving forward or at an angle.
You should use only the hardware specified in your manufacturers’ installation guide. Flimsier, shorter bolt anchors into the floor or to attach rails will compromise the rail’s impact rating.
They’re useful in critical areas because the ability to survive a hit is only part of it. The ability to take 2,000 pounds more can be the difference between a minor accident and a major incident. Not only can the rails take more damage, they deflect less, and less deflection is what you want. This is because the heavier rails won’t deflect a forklift back as far as a lighter one. If you cut 5″ off the deflection, the lift may not smash into something–or someone–else in the area.
Probably not. Unrated rails may be inexpensive imports or “home brew”. If you install guard railing, you need it to be able to actually do the job it was designed to do. Not knowing its rating means you can’t know its limitations. In general, you want at least 11 gauge corrugated steel for the rails, and heavy tubular posts. Not all yellow painted steel rail can really safeguard your people and critical assets. There are areas where rails could be installed that are designed for pedestrian traffic control, and not to contain forklifts, of course.
No. A vehicle weighing enough, at a high enough speed, will probably take down most guard rails, in particular if the driver doesn’t let up. That typically doesn’t happen, but it can. Like many other safety measures, guardrails are limited in their effectiveness. But they do work in many situations, and can save lives and property when properly specified and installed.
Guard rails should be installed in preference to paint strips or striping where people afoot and forklifts work in the same space, or where there is critical machinery, storage equipment, or infrastructure. But to be sure your rails can sustain forklift impacts, understand the rail’s impact ratings and track it any time the rail has been hit. Also understand that published capacity ratings are subject to a number of factors–angle, previous impacts, forklift speed and more. This also goes for standalone bollards or other impact
When properly laid out, guard rails don’t inhibit operational speed, but do significantly enhance safety. Contact Cisco-Eagle or another qualified company for assistance.
Tags: hand rails, bollards, traffic management, guard rail systems, facility safety
(InvestigateTV) — The Federal Highway Administration defines a guardrail as a safety barrier intended to shield a driver who has left the road.
The American Traffic Safety Association says guardrails can reduce serious injuries by up to 47% when installed correctly.
When not installed correctly, experts say they can turn from lifesaving devices to killers on the road.
Joey Beck knows just how catastrophic this device meant for safety can be.
“I always thought guardrails are there to protect you from your car rolling over here or going in the river.”
Now, when Joey sees guardrails he thinks of death.
In , his son Seth died after crashing into a guardrail on a Missouri highway.
“Well, he was a good-looking kid. He was a pretty good athlete and he was very smart. Why did it have to be him? I would rather it have been me.”
Crash-scene photos from the investigation show the mangled steel lying on the road.
Seth’s car was unrecognizable. Joey said the guardrail ripped the top of his son’s car off at the welds.
“It went straight through all the way out of his car.”
He had never heard of any issues of people dying after hitting guardrails before his son’s death.
Attorney Kent Emison said deaths of this type are more common than people realize. He has handled more than a dozen guardrail injury and death cases.
According to Emison, these cases span across the country where guardrails have speared vehicles causing serious injuries like leg amputations, or worse, killing people.
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“Several people were killed in Missouri, near Columbia, Missouri when the guardrail went right through a GM Tahoe.”
In many of those cases, he said the guardrails were installed improperly.
“People can’t understand how the smallest error in assembling an end terminal and guardrail could result in a death.”
Emison showed InvestigateTV this example of one of those small errors. He said simply putting the circled bracket below upside down caused a failure.
In , a 54-year-old woman hit the guardrail, pictured above, in Oklahoma.
According to Emison, any installation error could contribute to the guardrail locking up, turning the device into a spear.
“The end terminal and guardrail went right through this full-size pickup and killed the lady driving,” Emison said.
Brian Coon is a crash deconstructionist who has inspected hundreds of guardrail crashes for attorneys and has a doctorate in engineering.
“(People) need to understand the amount of technical finesse that goes into a guardrail design.”
Coon said he’s seen dozens of crashes involving guardrails that people should have been able to walk away from, but instead, they were killed.
“The problem with the installation of a guardrail is it looks like nuts and bolts and you just assemble it, but it actually does require training.”
The federal government does not require training and doesn’t have standards for who can install or replace guardrails, saying that decision is up to the states.
Private contractors and Department of Transportation workers often do the installation and repairs, but that’s not always the case.
This lawsuit filed in Florida alleges inmates repaired a damaged guardrail improperly causing a man to lose his leg after he crashed into it.
Coon believes tens of thousands of guardrails are improperly installed at some level across America. He said the federal government could be doing more to make these guardrails safer.
“They could require more inspections. They could require more testing,”
More inspections are exactly what a transportation research group urged the Federal Highway Administration to do. The research group said every guardrail should get a comprehensive, in-service performance evaluation.
That was back in , as seen in the above pdf file.
Emison told InvestigateTV that still hasn’t happened.
The Federal Highway Administration is responsible for making sure our roads are safe.
It declined to sit down for an interview about our country’s guardrail system and the calls for more inspections.
It would only say each state is responsible for its roads. InvestigateTV has plenty of questions for the agency, including:
Our investigators continue to press the federal government on as we continue our reports on dangerous guardrails.
The state of Florida recently reviewed all 26,000 guardrails installed across the state.
The Florida Department of Transportation told InvestigateTV that one-third of those rails were not in compliance at the time of inspection.
Work is underway to repair or replace each out-of-compliance guardrail.
The agency hopes to have the work completed by the end of .
Read the full response from Deputy Communications Director Michael Williams:
The Florida Department of Transportation has reviewed 100% of the 26,000 guardrail installations across all state-owned roadways to ensure compliance. Through this review, roughly 1/3 of the trailing end treatments, end terminals, and crash cushions qualified for some sort of repair while the remainder of our inventory involved relatively minor routine maintenance and repairs, such as replacing reflective markings and ground grading improvements. FDOT accelerated all routine maintenance, meaning FDOT is not waiting for the 2-year cycle guardrail systems typically go through for any needed maintenance to ensure all guardrails on state-owned facilities meet current maintenance standards. Costs associated with the repairs are being handled with in-house forces or through existing maintenance contracts.We anticipate we will complete all work by the end of December. To date, repairs and routine maintenance to our entire inventory are 60% complete.
FDOT is working closely with our asset maintenance contractors to ensure relevant training on installation requirements and procedures are provided and followed statewide.
While these repairs help enhance safety on our roadways, driver behavior remains the number one factor in preventing fatalities and serious injuries. Motorists play vital role they play in creating a safe driving experience by ensuring they have a designated driver, and refrain from operating a vehicle while distracted or drowsy.
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