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(graphic whooshes)
(gentle pensive music)

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- [Narrator] Engineers
will sometimes design

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two separate bridges for highways

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that travel over rivers and creeks.

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This results in a gap or opening

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between the parallel structures.

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The Texas Department of Transportation

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and the Texas A&M Transportation Institute

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developed a system to assist

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if a vehicle goes off the
road between these bridges.

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- So running off the road
is one of the leading causes

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of fatalities and serious
injuries across the country

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in terms of vehicular crashes.

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So this project really is
improving roadside hardware

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that we can install and help mitigate

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when vehicles do run off the road

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and ensure that they don't
encounter any further obstacles

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or hazards on the roadside.

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- So I think, for this research,
the key was finding a way

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that's cost-effective
and that is something

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that will be sustainable long term

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to keep vehicles from getting
in between those two barriers.

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This was an opportunity
for the research team

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to come with all the
ideas that are available

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and kind of bring together all
the different opportunities

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that over the years,
solutions have arisen.

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- This project was a great first step

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in developing mitigating measures to try

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to prevent these types of crashes.

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We've developed a system

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that can safely capture passenger vehicles

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from encountering those hazards

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that the bridges are spanning over.

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- So the research was done at TTI

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and where we had to figure out ways

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to emulate real-world situations

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and then figure out a way to make sure

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that we had everything ready to go.

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I know we had obstacles

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that we encountered with this research.

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Some of them were weather-related,

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some of them were equipment-related,

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and kind of just emulating and mirroring

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that real-world situation was something

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that I know the research
team had to overcome.

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- The next steps on this
project is a combination

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of implementation and further research.

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As it stands, the system
could be implemented

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in slope ditches across the state

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and safely decelerate passenger vehicles.

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There's a desire to
further improve the system

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to be able to capture
larger vehicles as well,

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large commercial vehicles.

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- The goal is to end the streak.

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And any way we can do that, we have tools,

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we have technology,

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and then even now it's user
error ourselves, right?

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As we get older, we also don't see things

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the way that we used to.

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So bringing that awareness and visibility

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to the problems will help
one at a time to solve that.

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- [Narrator] For more information

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and to find the publication
for this project,

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please visit the TxDOT Research Library

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at the link shown below.