Lattix sign post saves lives

Up to five Queensland road deaths a year could be averted if European-style road signs were adopted, according to local distributors of the signposts.

The sign poles, made by Lattix in Norway, are designed to break off at the base on impact from any angle.

Peter Hawthorne, Lattix manager for the ASP Group, said overseas statistics demonstrated that Lattix sign poles were far safer than the traditional tubular pole.

“There are more than 30,000 Lattix posts in Norway and the UK,” Mr Hawthorne said. “There have been more than 100 recorded crashes into Lattix posts and there has never been a death or serious injury.”

Between 2001 and 2005, 16 people died on Queensland roads as a result of hitting some sort of post. Five died in 2004 alone.

Most posts used in Queensland are “slip base” tubular poles where the pole is supposed to come away cleanly from the base.

However, Mr Hawthorne said, in many cases the pole was not torn cleanly from its base plate in an accident because the bolts were too tight or the pole was hit from the wrong angle.

The Lattix system was developed by Norwegian Kim Heglund and is designed to come off its base, no matter from which angle it is hit.

A Main Roads Department spokesman said designs for all sign supports had to comply with the department's safety standards.

Mr Hawthorne said Lattix had not submitted a tender because Main Roads stipulated it wanted slip base supports.

“Lattix is not a slip base support, it is an energy-absorbent post so we hadn't even thought to (tender),” he said.

“We will submit prices next time though. We may even try to get energy absorbent posts put in as a separate category to slip base posts.”

Mr Hawthorne said there was probably an increase in cost when using Lattix poles over slip base poles but the increase was marginal.

Overseas crash test evidence shows a steel pole will severely damage a small car driven into it at 70km/h, while a Lattix pole shears off at ground level a fraction of a second after impact, causing minimal damage to the car.

There is a Lattix post system in use in Queensland, erected at the expense of the ASP Group, local distributors of the system, at Exit 142 of the Bruce Highway at Deception Bay Road. There is another at the Kilcoy exit.

The European Road Assessment Program (EuroRAP) found that more than 60 per cent of road deaths in the UK occur on roads outside built-up areas, particularly on single carriageways. Last year, 300 people in the UK were killed or seriously injured in collisions with traffic signs and signal posts.

The rigidity of most roadside posts in the UK means even a European five-star safety rated car cannot protect its occupants adequately.

Lattix posts are designed to be forgiving when struck by vehicles at speeds of more than 80km/h.