Road safety vehicle hire and sales specialist Blakedale has launched a transatlantic partnership that will see it distribute a new Truck Mounted Attenuator (TMA) in the UK.
The firm said the arrangement with TrafFix Devices Inc, the US manufacturer of highway safety products, establishes it as one of a small number of UK distributors of the new Scorpion II TMA, or crash cushion,
Blakedale said the Scorpion II is the first MASH-approved (Manual for Assessing Safety Hardware) TMA from the US and is also TD49/07 (110kph) approved in the UK, ‘making it one of the safest and most reliable crash cushions in the world’.
Richard Smith, joint managing director of Blakedale, said: ‘We are delighted and very proud to be partnering with TrafFix whose commitment to road safety matches our own. With this addition Blakedale now installs, sells, hires and services all the major Crash Cushions to the UK market.’
The Scorpion II TMA consists of strut and cartridge sections linked on a support frame. Blakedale said this open cartridge design reduces wind resistance and increases fuel efficiency when deployed on the job site and when travelling at highway speeds.
Each energy absorbing cushion has an aluminium honeycomb core that is enclosed by an aluminium powder coated box module designed to provide maximum durability and longevity.
Blakedale said the Scorpion's modular design crushes in progressive stages when impacted, which reduces the impact forces on the vehicle’s occupants and results in lower repair costs and easy parts replacement.
The curved side rails are made from corrosion resistant aluminium tubes and are designed to offer full width impact protection along the entire length of the Scorpion II by safely redirecting the impacting vehicle away from the rear of the truck.
When fully deployed, the Scorpion II is only 13' (4 m) in length. Blakedale said this minimises incidental impacts, which further reduces repair costs.
The new tie-up with TrafFix was announced at Traffex Road Expo Scotland (no relation).
