Roadside columns are often the point of impact of vehicles with serious and often fatal consequences. To reduce the number and severity of such accidents, a growing number of scientists and experts are trying to find technical solutions for improving behaviour of roadside columns during the collision with a vehicle. It is about columns which can, unlike the usual rigid columns, absorb the energy or break in a controlled way when impacted by a vehicle. These types of columns belong to the category of passive safety road equipment. They are still in the initial stages of implementation in some countries of the European Union. The paper gives a comprehensive overview of passively safe roadside columns with respect to material production and energy absorbing properties and examines the safety level for the passengers in the vehicle. It analyses the behaviour of three types of columns in a collision with a vehicle with respect to the possibility of absorbing a certain amount of energy, failure mode and passenger safety. The analysis has been made based on comparisons of results of the crash tests and numerical simulations of impacts. It describes in detail the advantages and disadvantages of the application of passively safe roadside columns over traditional rigid columns, which are now still usually implemented along the roads.

roadside columns, accidents, passive safety, absorption energy, crash tests