{"id":609303,"date":"2026-08-30T14:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609303\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T14:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T14:20:08","slug":"m50-flyover-barriers-not-designed-to-stop-head-on-collisions-says-tii-following-fatal-incident-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609303\/","title":{"rendered":"M50 flyover barriers not designed to stop head-on collisions, says TII, following fatal incident \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

M50<\/a> flyover barriers are not designed to stop head-on collisions<\/a>, Transport Infrastructure Ireland<\/a> (TII) has said after a car crashed through one and fell down on to the motorway on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Concerns were raised in the aftermath of the crash<\/a> as to how the vehicle was able to breach the safety barrier and land on a traffic lane underneath.<\/p>\n

The State agency responsible for the road network said the barrier, which is standard on many other flyover bridges, was designed to deflect glancing crashes by vehicles travelling at relatively low speeds.<\/p>\n

An industry source said incidents such as Wednesday\u2019s were \u201crare\u201d and that the safety infrastructure in place was sufficient to stop the vast majority of incidents likely to take place on the road. <\/p>\n

The couple were driving from Dublin Airport southbound on the M50<\/a> when they exited the motorway at Junction 10, near the Ballymount slip road.<\/p>\n

The vehicle, a source said, mounted the footpath at \u201cextreme velocity\u201d, crashed through the metal and mesh barrier, and travelled a significant distance in the air before landing bumper-first on the embankment beside the motorway.<\/p>\n

The car then bounced over the external crash barrier into busy lanes of traffic at about 3.20pm.<\/p>\n

The distance the car travelled once it broke through the flyover parapet has led investigators to believe the electric vehicle accelerated quickly as it left the motorway exit ramp.<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed are investigating the possibility that driver error led to the car rapidly crossing the R838 or the possibility that a medical emergency was responsible for the loss of control.<\/p>\n

The couple were removed from the scene and brought to hospital to be treated for serious injuries. Their condition is not known. <\/p>\n

TII \u2013 quoting an infrastructure specialist \u2013 said the barrier on the M50 flyover bridge in question was \u201cnot designed for head-on collisions\u201d.<\/p>\n

The State agency said the \u201cvehicle road restraint system\u201d in place on the bridge, the barrier, was instead \u201cdesigned to absorb impact energy and redirect cars striking at shallow angles\u201d.<\/p>\n

The 1.8m high containment parapet, TII said, was standard design in Ireland for similar flyover bridges.<\/p>\n

The barrier is designed to deflect crashes with an angle of impact of no more than 20 degrees \u2013 a similar angle to the head of a pencil \u2013 of a 1.5 tonne vehicle travelling at no more than 80km\/h.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigher containment levels are used in certain situations, depending on such factors as vehicle speeds allowed and bridge geometry,\u201d TII said.<\/p>\n

At one point in the aftermath of the crash, the southbound queue of the M50 motorway stretched back to junction one for Dublin Airport during rush hour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"M50 flyover barriers are not designed to stop head-on collisions, Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII) has said after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609304,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,69197,43,11318,29094],"class_list":["post-609303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-m50","tag-news","tag-road-safety","tag-transport-infrastructure-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609303"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609303\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}