IoT-Powered Flexible Road Dividers for Accident Impact Reduction

In road safety, accidents involving collisions with road dividers often result in severe injuries and fatalities. To mitigate the impact of such accidents, this study focuses on designing and testing flexible road dividers to reduce collision severity and real-time alerting through IoT Integration. A novel flexible road divider incorporates advanced materials like expanded polystyrene separators and barriers (EPS), and specific engineering principles like design, shape, and flexibility make dividers capable of absorbing and dissipating kinetic energy after impact. The system is engineered to be durable, resilient, and cost-effective, making it a viable solution for enhancing road safety in the Indian transportation system. Detailed measurements of forces, deformation, and energy absorption are recorded to quantify the system's effectiveness in reducing the severity of accidents. The findings of this research have implications for road design and infrastructure and offer valuable insights into the development of safer transportation systems with a real-time collision alert mechanism using vibration sensors. Ultimately, adopting flexible road dividers with enhanced impact-reducing properties could represent a significant step forward in safeguarding the lives of road users and reducing the economic burden associated with road accidents. The new prototype discussed in this is anticipated to enhance the energy-absorbing capacity of concrete barriers and lessen the effect of cars beside concrete barriers – a unit weight of 1650 kg/m3.