We’ve carried out nearly 30 crash tests in our time but we reckon our latest is the most destructive and successful yet – after it reduced a 7.2 tonne lorry to a mangled wreckage.
Held to put the latest version of our Glide Bollard system – the Glide Bollard-40 – through its paces, the test was described by our MD, Mark Stone, as “unbelievable” after the truck was left upside down, with its front axle and cab detached.
We hold around four impact tests each year on our products, putting them up against different vehicles travelling at different speeds, in order that they can earn the industry’s coveted IWA-14 rating, which demonstrates that they are suitable for preventing ram raids or hostile attacks.
We previously tested our Glide Bollard system last year using a truck travelling at 30mph and the system passed that test with flying colours. This time we stepped things up to 40mph in order that we can capture a wider share of the UK security bollard market with the Glide Bollard system, which comprises of a line of steel bollards fitted onto an underground rail embedded into the ground at just 240mm deep, allowing operators to control access to garages and access roads simply by sliding the bollards in and out of position.
And so earlier this month we returned to testing agency MIRA in Leicestershire, where a 7.2 tonne Iveco lorry was hooked up to a cable and deliberately rammed into our Glide Bollards–40, which had been installed specially for the occasion.
Mr Stone said: “There has already been interest in the system and although I was confident we’d pass the test, when it came to it I have to confess I was so nervous that I couldn’t watch.
“When I saw the results, it was unbelievable. The truck hadn’t just been stopped, it was upside-down and totally annihilated, all due to the force of the impact.
“We’ve done loads of tests down the years, but this was by far the most destructive and successful one we’ve carried out. The extra 10mph nearly doubles the force of the impact, which accounted for the truck, but the bollards barely had a scratch on them.”
It took us three years to develop the Glide Bollard system and the success of the test means that it can now service 80% of the high security bollard market in the UK.
The Glide Bollard-40 system is the latest in a growing number of innovations that Securiscape has introduced, alongside reinforced planters, blast-resistant litter bins and its Securipod temporary street barrier, all of which are designed to make Britain’s streets and public places safer.
We were also the first company to develop an ultra-shallow IWA-14-rated pedestrian guardrail that can prevent vehicles from mounting pavements on the sides of road bridges and was developed in the wake of the Westminster terror attack in London in 2017.
Elsewhere our products have been installed in a host of towns and cities across the UK, including Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham and London, where they have been used to protect the UK headquarters of two international banks and Brent Borough Council’s civic centre in Wembley.
