UNL working to strengthen barriers against electric vehicles like truck used in New Orleans

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – Tragedy struck in New Orleans on Wednesday as an electric pickup truck rammed into crowds of people on Bourbon Street.

Mechanical barricades had been installed around Bourbon Street but were not functioning and were being repaired in preparation for the Super Bowl.

“These metal bollards literally come up from the ground to prevent a vehicle from gaining enough speed to cause the kind of mass damage that we saw this morning,” Rep. Troy Carter of Louisiana said.

Police say the terrorist drove a Ford pickup truck onto the sidewalk to avoid other barricades in place.

“So we knew that these were malfunctioned,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. “So we did indeed have a plan. But the terrorist defeated it.”

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Since 2018, the share of U.S. car sales that are electric vehicles has risen 75%.

But researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Midwest Roadside Safety Facility said most of the nation’s barricades are not built to stop electric vehicles.

None of the researchers responded to interview requests on Wednesday, but they have previously said that electric vehicles outweigh gas-powered vehicles by thousands of pounds and can accelerate quicker.

“Electric vehicles are a new kind of a threat,” Cody Stolle, the assistant director of the facility, said. “The biggest and most important factor that’s being done to improve these barrier systems right now is improve their capacity.”

UNL has worked with the Department of Defense for about 10 years on various projects to protect from vehicle attacks.

Last year, the team received a $2.2 million grant to research how to protect U.S. military bases from electric vehicle attacks.

Engineers are developing barriers that can better handle attacks from EVs.

The research team said its work will not only help prevent intentional attacks but also save lives during accidents.

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