A driver will slam a pickup truck at 45 to 50 m.p.h. into a steel net strung over the road before a rail crossing near Chenoa, Ill., on Wednesday, hoping to do two things: emerge unscathed and have the truck stop before reaching the tracks.
The demonstration by the Illinois Department of Transportation and the steel net’s manufacturer is designed to help officials see if the screen can prevent accidents at rail crossings caused by motorists trying to beat oncoming trains.
The nets, installed as an experiment in Chenoa and two other crossings in McLean County in March, descend when a train approaches and warning signals sound. They stand 125 feet from the tracks on both sides of the crossings.
The three sites are being studied by a team of civil engineers at the University of Illinois. Fred Coleman III, a member of the team, said that very few motorists have attempted to beat the nets, which take 8 to 10 seconds to descend once a train trips a signal.
In one case, said IDOT’s Merrill Traves, a pickup pulling a horse trailer slipped under the first net in Chenoa but was stopped by the second net well past the far side of the tracks.
The manufacturer, Energy Absorption Systems Inc. of Chicago, claims a seat-belted motorist can emerge safely after hitting a net at 55 m.p.h. The vehicle is slowed by steel coils forced to unspool through a series of steel pins.
“We want to stop vehicles, but we don’t want to shatter the vehicles or risk harming the occupants,” Traves said.
An earlier test on a prototype net was successfully conducted two years ago at Texas A&M University with an 80,000-pound semitrailer, piloted by remote control, moving at 45 m.p.h.
“We stopped it in 100 feet 6 inches,” Traves said.
The technology is costly: The prototype cost $1.2 million. The nets are being considered for crossings in rural areas.
The Union Pacific tracks that link Chicago and St. Louis have been selected to become a 110 m.p.h. Amtrak rail line in 2002.
Also, there will be $450 million in state and federal funds available over the next five years for rail crossing safety improvements.
