SAFER Barrier - Wikipedia.com

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The Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barrier, sometimes called a soft wall, is a technology found primarily on oval automobile race tracks and intended to make racing accidents safer. It was designed by a team of engineers led by Dean Sicking at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The SAFER barrier consists of structural steel tubes welded together. Behind these tubes are bundles of closed-cell polystyrene foam, placed between the barrier and the concrete wall.

The theory behind the design is that the barrier absorbs a portion of the kinetic energy released when a race car makes contact with the wall. This energy is dissipated along a longer portion of the wall, instead of propelling the car back into traffic on the track.