– More than half of the country, 30 states, have now announced they will suspend further installations of a controversial guardrail system on roads across the country, after critics said it was a cover-up for a dangerous change in guardrail design that has caused nearly a dozen years ago.
A Texas jury found earlier this month that guardrail maker Trinity Industries deceived the government by making changes in 2005 without notifying federal or state transportation officials, and many states announced moratoriums on new ET-Plus guardrails.then.Trinity was ordered to pay about $175 million in damages – an amount expected to triple under statutory authority.
Thirty states have said they will no longer install the ET-Plus system, with some recent additions being Kentucky, Tennessee, Kansas, Georgia and Trinity’s home state of Texas.A Virginia state said last week it was working on plans to remove guardrails from highways, but would consider leaving them in place if Trinity can prove the modified versions are safe.
The ET-Plus system was the subject of an ABC News “20/20″ investigation in September, which looked into claims by crash victims that modified guardrails would malfunction when struck by a vehicle from the front.Instead of pulling apart and absorbing the impact as designed, the guardrail “locks up” and goes straight through the car, in some cases severing the driver’s limbs.
According to an internal email obtained by ABC News, a company official estimated that one particular change — reducing a piece of metal at the end of the guardrail from 5 inches to 4 inches — would save the company $2 per guardrail. , or $50,000 per year.
The Federal Highway Administration has given Trinity until Oct. 31 to submit plans to crash-test the guardrails or face plans to suspend its sales nationwide.Some of the 28 states said ET-Plus bans are in place at least until the results of those crash tests are available.
Trinity has always maintained that the guardrails are safe, noting that the FHWA approved the use of the revised guardrails in 2012 after raising questions about the modifications.The company plans to appeal the Texas verdict, having previously told ABC News it has “high confidence” in the performance and integrity of the ET-Plus system.