serious safety concerns have been raised about
the ET-Plus guardrail system. IT WAS
designed by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University and
manufactured by Trinity Industries of Dallas
Missouri has become ground zero for a national debate
about whether a widely used highway guardrail system is as safe as it should
be, lawyers and safety advocates say.
A January fatality accident in Clay County and a huge
federal jury verdict in Texas have energized the discussion.
Meanwhile, the safety concerns have prompted the
Missouri Department of Transportation to suspend installation of the ET-Plus
guardrail system, designed by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas
A&M University and manufactured by Trinity Industries of Dallas.
Critics of the guardrails contend that design flaws make
it more dangerous than the system’s predecessors. Spears of metal can break off
and slice through vehicles, sometimes killing or maiming the occupants, they
say.
Guardrail systems are supposed to slow a careening car
or truck and bring it to a stop while minimizing injuries.
By one estimate, as many as 30,000 such guardrails have
been installed on Missouri highways over the years. A recent study, funded in
part by the state, found that ET-Plus is much more likely to be involved in
fatal accidents than an earlier system.
The Missouri study should be a wake-up call to all
states, said Steven Lawrence, a Texas lawyer who has worked on litigation
against Trinity.
“These things aren’t working,” Lawrence said. “I don’t
know where we’d be if we didn’t have the Missouri (transportation department)
doing what they did.”
A spokesman for Trinity, however, defended the product
and said a new round of federally mandated crash tests underway in San Antonio
likely will demonstrate the safety of the guardrail system.
“We have full confidence in the ET-Plus guardrail
system,” said Jeff Eller of Trinity Industries. “We have confidence it will
pass.”
As Bradley J. Abeln drove into Kansas City the morning
of Jan. 17, the controversy over the guardrail system barely had reached a
murmur.
The Polo, Mo., construction worker was following a
tractor-trailer south on Interstate 35 near Liberty Hospital when a driver to
his left allegedly dozed off. Her vehicle drifted right and slammed into
Abeln’s 1987 Ford Bronco, according to a state accident report.
According to court records, the Bronco spun and crashed
broadside into the end of a Trinity guardrail. The sport utility vehicle hit
what engineers call the “end terminal,” a heavy device that fits over the end
of the guardrail.
The force of the crash thrust the guardrail into the
driver’s seat. The Bronco rolled, ejecting Abeln and his passenger out of the
rear of the vehicle, court records said. Abeln died at the scene. His passenger
suffered serious injuries.
An end terminal is designed to absorb energy from a
crash by sliding along the metal guardrail, extruding the guardrail as it
passes to one side, like a flattened ribbon, away from the vehicle.
But a Clay County lawsuit filed on behalf of Abeln’s
four young children alleged that undisclosed changes to the design in 2005 made
the end terminal prone to “lock up” and bend the guardrail beam unpredictably.
“When the beam locked up, it contacted the driver’s door
and drove the driver’s door into the driver’s seat,” said Lexington, Mo.,
attorney Kent Emison, who represents Abeln’s children.
Emison filed his lawsuit in June. By September, the
state of Missouri had stopped installation of ET-Plus systems along the state’s
highways.
Missouri is inventorying its guardrails so it knows
exactly what equipment is in the field, said Sally Oxenhandler, a spokeswoman
for the state’s transportation department.
The state also partially funded a study of the guardrail
systems by the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Engineering. That
study, released in October and contested by some experts, found that the
ET-Plus design was almost four times more likely to be involved in a fatal
accident than a previous model the company sold.
Missouri can be proud of how quickly it has moved to
address this question, Emison said.
“The Missouri Department of Transportation was one of
the first state (transportation departments) to recognize this problem, track
the problem and take steps to make the roadways safer,” Emison said.
Kansas transportation officials said they have only 396
such systems in the state. But they also have halted the installation of any
new ET-Plus systems on state roads.
According to federal transportation officials, 40 states
have suspended installation of ET-Plus systems.
Much remains unsettled about the ET-Plus, both
scientifically and legally.
In October, a Texas jury slapped Trinity with a $175
million judgment for purportedly defrauding the federal government by secretly
changing the design specifications in 2005 without notifying the Federal
Highway Administration, which reimburses states for guardrails on federal
highway projects.
That judgment triples to $525 million under federal law.
After the verdict, the company predicted it would
prevail in an appeal.
“Trinity believes the decision cannot and will not
withstand legal scrutiny,” the company statement read.
The company suspended sales of the ET-Plus system and
began working with federal regulators to set up the new San Antonio crash
tests, which should wrap up in January.
Before the tests began, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill
urged the acting administrator of the Federal Highway Administration to consider
a more extensive testing program before allowing further federal reimbursements
for the use of the ET-Plus.
“Given the serious safety concerns that have been raised
about the ET-Plus, thorough and rigorous testing is what is needed before
states and the Federal Highway Administration make further determinations about
whether to continue use of this product,” McCaskill wrote.