Cable barriers appear to have played a pivotal role in limiting the injuries during a three-vehicle crash on Hwy 2 about seven km south of Red Deer on Tuesday.
Police continue to investigate a collision just north of the Hwy 42 overpass that sent three people to hospital and shut the northbound lanes down from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m.
A traffic analyst was called to assist in the investigation, said Cpl. Al Nickolson, an Innisfail-based member of the RCMP Integrated Traffic Services.
While investigators have not reached any definite conclusions, it appears that one of the three vehicles slowed to avoid a minor collision and was struck from behind by two others, said Nickolson.
One of the cars took extensive damage after being pushed into the cable barrier during the collision, which involved another car and a full-sized pickup truck, he said.
The cables are engineered to stop vehicles from running into the median and crossing into oncoming traffic, he said. The posts are meant to break on impact while the cables have some give, which allows them to stretch and absorb some of the energy from the crash.
While there can still be extensive damage to vehicles, the people inside generally escape with lighter injuries and there are fewer vehicles involved because the cables contain the collision.
So far, the only case Nickolson has seen where the cables haven’t worked involved a highly modified pickup truck that ran out of control near Airdrie, jumped the barrier and flew across the median. The truck was jacked up so its engine was actually higher than the cables, which significantly raised its centre of gravity, said Nickolson.
Vehicles that have run out of control have been contained in all other cases since the barriers were installed, including a semi truck hauling two trailers, he said.
There have been fatalities on Hwy 2 from Red Deer to Airdrie during the past year, but none of them involved vehicles striking the barriers or crossing the median, he said.
The RCMP will tally statistics from the first year of using the barriers and compare them with previous years as further evidence of their effectiveness, said Nickolson.
bkossowan@www.reddeeradvocate.com