ASTM International has approved a new test standard for devices used to protect people and property from vehicles in parking lots, and for use in areas where storefronts or pedestrian areas are exposed to oncoming vehicles at nose-in parking spaces and drive aisles.
ASTM advised us that on November 1st, they had approved for release this new standard as F3016. The full name of the standard is:
“Standard Test Method for Surrogate Testing of Vehicle Impact Protective Devices at Low Speeds.”
For background about the new F3016 standard, you can read the article from Standardization News about WK13074, which was the draft form which ASTM committee F12-10 has been working on. Read the article HERE.
This new standard will help local communities, property owners, and architects and engineers to understand and specify bollards and barriers to prevent vehicle incursions such as curb overs, storefront crashes, and other sorts of vehicle/pedestrian incidents that occur on private property. This standard will be used to write building codes and local ordinances which require a tested product to be used in instances where people or property might be struck by an errant vehicle.
For statistics on these accidents, we have pulled some data from the Storefront Safety Council blog:
More than 60 vehicle-into-building crashes per day in the United States
More than 10 serious injuries per day, over 3650 injuries per year
More than 1 fatal incident per day, over 485 fatalities per year
This is a major public safety issue that receives too little attention in America. Consider that many activities and accidents considered much more dangerous by the public actually result in far fewer deaths and injuries;
Just 23 people were killed by lightning in all of 2013.
Just 55 people were killed by tornadoes in all of 2013.
Also: compare the risk level while engaged in everyday activities like going shopping or dining out with deliberately risky activities;
21 people killed skydiving
25 people killed mountain climbing
150 people killed scuba diving
378 people killed in private plane crashes
Park Green will be providing the parking industry with more information about this important new standard. Because of our collective efforts with ASTM, we are in the best position to provide detailed information on the far-reaching effects ASTM F3016 will have on parking lot design, parking structure operations, pedestrianization and boulevard projects, parklets, and premises liability. We will be speaking about this new standard at our roundtable presentation at the California Public Parking Association next Thursday, November 13th in Los Angeles.