Errant vehicles occur as a result of the driver losing control of the vehicle.\nThis may be due to sudden illness, dozing off or skidding while attempting a\nmanoeuvre. In containing such an errant vehicle on a highway, the priority is\nto avoid collision with other vehicles. A sloped highway median provides a\nrun-off area for such vehicles where the vehicle can be slowed down and\nstopped without the danger of being re-directed into the path of other vehicles\nas may occur with edge barriers. Here, the effect of a containment barrier at\nthe bottom of the sloped median is studied with a view to prevent the vehicle\nfrom being redirected outside the median after colliding with the barrier. The\nfocus of this work is on the change of kinematic states due to the collision, so\na momentum-based vehicle collision analysis is developed, with the collision\nenergy loss related to the vehicle stiffness being considered by coefficient of\nrestitution. The average maximum lateral displacements post-collision are\nread from the diagram of vehicle x-y trajectories. In this way, the most suitable\nmedian slope 1:6 is selected.
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