Bullnose guardrail systems are used to protect vehicles from hazards in the median of divided highways. The Midwest Roadside Safety Facility is currently designing and testing a new bullnose system that will meet relatively new Federal safety performance specifications. After developing a system that successfully handled frontal impacts, attention was then focused on impacts along the side required of such systems. What is considered the most demanding design test condition along the side, known as the critical impact point, proved difficult. After a failed crash test, using non-linear finite element analysis, the system was analysed, modifications put forth and studied, and a recommended new design was proposed. Subsequently, the proposed design was successfully crash tested at 100 km/h at the critical impact point.