But Versluis says that the new polyurethane has been tested "a dozen times with vehicle impacts--with NASCAR vehicles and with three-quarter-ton pickup trucks. And after a dozen impacts, we still don't see a change. It takes a few minutes to get back to its original configuration. After ten minutes, you see 98 percent; after 30 minutes, it's back to the original."

Focke says the material could have some practical advantages for places like bridge abutments and concrete barriers that separate lanes of traffic. "For some reason or another, people tend to go straight at those things," he says. And today's technologies--sand- or water-filled barrels; steel cages with plastic boxes that crush--are essentially one-time-use systems. Once they are destroyed, they need to be replaced.

"It could be days or weeks before some states can get out to repair these sites," Focke says. "Even here in Ohio it can take up to two weeks to repair, and if you get 100,000 vehicles a day, there's a chance that another crash can happen before we get back out there. And it exposes the workers to danger during the repair."

Versluis says two companies that manufacture highway safety barriers have licensed the technology, and that it is now under evaluation by the Federal Highway Safety Administration. The evaluations are expected to be complete within a couple of months. Battelle hopes to have a product on the market by summer 2007.