Taken from our friends at 4x4ph.com

Is the Bull Bar just a lot of Bull?
by Tessa R. Salazar

Indigenous creatures roam the Outback of Australia, so it's not surprising to find indigenous "machines" roaming among these animals, as well. Take the Aussies' pickups and 4WD sport utility vehicles, for example.

Owners put in what is called a grille guard, or a bull bar, to protect the vehicle's front end in the event of an unfortunate collision with road-crossing animals such as kangaroos and cattle. The bull bars are supposed to protect the front accessories, such as headlights.

The bull bar is also called the "kangaroo bar" or "roo bar" in Australia. However, it also has other names, depending on the type of frontal protection it is designed for. The "bumper replacement Vehicle Frontal Protection Systems" (VFPS) is also designed to protect against animal collisions, and replaces the front bumper. An "over bumper VFPS" protect against low-speed city collisions, and the front bumper is retained.

A "nudge bar" is designed to protect against low-speed car park collisions and is also used as support for additional driving lights through a light U-shaped tubular bar fitted in front of the bumper as defined at ecars.com.au.

Totally unnecessary
The Australian bull bars, however, are on a collision course with nature conservationists, who protest that bull bars are totally unnecessary, and even impinge on the animals' rights as the "real residents" of Australia. Motorists plying the outback have been asked to shift their focus to being more concerned with preservation of "life," rather than the preservation of their vehicles' headlights.

That's one way of saying outback drivers should navigate more carefully, and respect animals crossing the road.

Collision effect
Bull bars have inevitably found their way into cities and suburbs. Though there is no accurate data on the number of human pedestrians bull bars have killed or maimed, experimental studies suggest that the collision effect on pedestrians and cyclists of adding bull bars is similar to doubling the actual speed of the vehicle. Thus, urban motorists who couldn't do away with their metal bull bars have been urged to replace them with soft plastic bull bars.

The Pedestrian Council of Australia revealed last year that bull bars are attributable to up to 20 percent of road deaths involving pedestrians and drivers. It further added that research by the Federal Office of Road Safety found bull bars defeated vehicles' safety crumpling zones and caused damage to other cars and injury to their occupants.

Favorable impact
Proponents against bull bars in Australia have even put up road safety advertisements urging people to tear off a pictured baby's head "to see what a bull bar can do." The PCA said the ad has had considerable favorable impact on the community.

Because of the rugged character it bestows upon vehicles, bull bars have also become a popular, albeit unnecessary and even dangerous, accessory in the Philippine motoring industry. Many see the dangers posed by bull bars on pedestrians and fellow motorists magnified in Philippine driving conditions, what with the lack of driving discipline and inadequate road safety facilities.

Greatest chance of collision
"Motorists have the greatest chance of colliding with children, because the latter are unpredictable," says automotive technologist Alex P. Loinaz. He adds one temporary solution could be imposing speed limits in areas where children are most likely to cross.

But then, Filipino motorists rarely, if ever, observe speed limits.

Affordability
Bull bars' accessibiltiy is helped by its relative affordability. A set of bull bars could cost anywhere between P4,000 and P30,000, depending on the materials used and the coverage area of the bull bar.

A leading auto insurance company said the add-on premium that a vehicle owner would have to pay the insurance company for a bull bar is anywhere between P600 and P1,500.

Lito Lazaga of Standart Auto Insurance estimates that about 40 percent of its newly insured SUV owners proceed to accessory shops and fit in bull bars, regardless if such accessories' safety has been tested and approved by the vehicle's designers.

Then, in the provinces, another 25 percent of insured pickups have bull bars attached, Lazaga says. He adds that 85 percent of his clients with bull bars who encountered frontal collisions had destroyed headlights and front faces, more than doubling the economic loss compared to the absence of bull bars.

But then, owners don't have to worry about such losses. It is the auto insurance that shoulders the damages.

Says Loinaz, "If there were no bull bar, the point of impact is lower, exactly at the point of where the bumper is. Thus, only the vehicle's lower extremities would be affected."

Loinaz produced photos wherein an SUV, equipped with a bull bar, rear-ended another car. The entire rear of the car was wrecked. The force of the impact also wrecked the SUV's hood that would have otherwise been spared from damage had the bull bar not been there.

"If this same vehicle hits a person, where exactly would the bull bar hit? At the ribs, but if the bull bar hits a child, it hits directly the head of the child," he states.

Loinaz addes that if a child is hit by the bumper alone, the child would merely fall down, and since the bumper is flatshaped, the injury may not be neccesarily as worse as when the child hits the protruding steel of a bull bar.

Philippine regulation
The Inquirer acquired a copy of a Philippine regulation (administrative order 91-005 of the new motor vehicle inspection system) that requires the body of a motor vehicle should be free from any sharp edges or rotating protrusions that may endanger people and other vehicles in the highway.

In an interview with the Inquirer, new LTO chief Anneli Lontoc says she is looking into the bull bar issue. LTO's traffic safety education chief Daisy Jacobo stresses that the right to accessorize one's property should be tempered with safety considerations for others.

"When you attach equipment meant to harm others, then it goes against good human relations," she says.

Auto manufacturers, she adds, should also be vocal about it. Most auto manufacturers already "complete the look" nowadays by using bumper overriders instead of bull bars.

Two automakers say that if the bull bar does not come from them, they could not warrant it against any damages or injuries it might cause.

Safety considerations
Loinaz stresses that in cases a bull bar is deemed necessary, it is important that the bull bar comes from the original design of manufacturers, since its makers have factored in basic considerations of safety.

"You will notice the bull bars sold by automakers are low bull bars with the basic understanding of safety," observes Loinaz.

He says there is a purpose to the bumper design. The initial consideration is to minimize economic losses in case of collision, but at the same time there is the less chance of bodily injury.

"Today, there are uniform bumper designs for the cars so that when they collide with each other, the damage could be superficial," he adds.

To lessen potential damages to other motorists, trucks' bull bars are low-slung and flat, says Loinaz.

He says that in the end, however, the question of whether a bull bar is necessary or not depends on how its owner drives and respects others.

Says Loinaz, "In Canada, the first thing that will be said by the park ranger to a visiting motorist is,'you are the visitor, and the animals are the residents here.' This could only mean the visitor must actually give way to the animals."

Not meant to harm
Rommel Ruedas, general contractor from Steel Works in Las Pinas (maker of conveyors for airport terminals) and part time bull bar maker, says bull bars are not meant to harm pedestrians but to protect the headlight and hood in cases of collision with walls or posts. He makes regular bull bars for L300 vans for P4,000.

Leo Suzara, also a general contractor from Steel Works, says bull bars actually provide 2 to 3 percent more protection to the vehicle. "With or without bull bars, if the driver is not careful, he could still kill pedestrians," he adds.

Virgen Aguila of US Aguila Enterprises says he has had clients involved in collisions with posts or walls and went back to thank him for the bull bar he had installed.

"Several of my clients believe the bull bars lessened their expenses," he says. "Some even went to the extent of saying it had saved their lives."

According to him, he sells an average of five stainless bull bars a month. Front bull bars go for P7,500, back bull bar for P5,000 and side bull bar for P6,500.
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