Citing safety concerns, Virginia may ban the ET-Plus, a type of guardrail manufactured by Trinity Industries,depending on the results of new tests it has ordered the company to perform.
According to the New York Times, Virginia officials sent a letter to Trinity on Oct. 10,stating that they didn’t believe Trinity had conducted sufficient testing on the end terminals of the ET-Plus following a 2005 redesign.
“We’ve given them a deadline to provide the research we’re asking for. If they can’t prove to us it’s safe for use on Virginia roads, then we’re not going to use it, and we’ll begin to inventory where the product is installed and look into removing them,”Marshall Herman of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) told the New York Times.
Trinity spokesman Jack Todd said the company “will engage directly with that agency to discuss and address their letter.” VDOT officials say they will ban the ET-Plus if proof of its safety is not provided by Oct. 24.
Florida is among the states that has used the ET-Plus guardrail terminals on its highways. Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles data show six fatal vehicle accidents and 159 injuries involving guardrail ends in Florida in 2012.
Virginia’s Action Is the Latest Over ET-Plus
Concerns over the ET-Plus were originally raised by safety advocate Joshua Harman, who has filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit against the Dallas-based Trinity Highway Products LLC. The trial began Oct. 13 in Marshall, Texas.
Harman alleges that Trinity changed the dimensions of the ET-Plus end terminal without notifying states.The changes transformed the guardrails from impact-absorbers into lethal spears, Harman says.
Similar allegations have been raised in lawsuits filed across the country. The suits blame the guardrails for more than a dozen accidents, five deaths and numerous serious injuries, including cases in which vehicles crashed into guardrails and motorists lost legs, according to ABC News.
Internal Trinity emails obtained by ABC News show that reducing the dimensions of the ET-Plus would save the company $2 per end terminal. “That’s $50,000 a year and $250,000 in five years,” the memo states.
Nevada banned the ET-Plus in January. In September, research commissioned by the state of Missouri found that, compared to another Trinity guardrail (the ET-2000), the ET-Plus “was 1.36 times more likely to produce a severe injury and 2.86 times more likely to produce a fatality,” according to an article on Autoblog. Missouri banned further installation of the ET-Plus on Sept. 24, and Massachusetts followed suit on Sept. 30.
Although the ET-Plus passed federal crash standards in 2012 and was deemed eligible for federal aid reimbursement by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), officials say a nationwide guardrail study has the agency’s support.
“We’re interested in looking at how these devices perform in the real world after they pass crash testing,” FHWA official Nicholas Artimovich told ABC News.
Citing safety concerns, Virginia may ban the ET-Plus, a type of guardrail manufactured by Trinity Industries,depending on the results of new tests it has ordered the company to perform.
According to the New York Times, Virginia officials sent a letter to Trinity on Oct. 10,stating that they didn’t believe Trinity had conducted sufficient testing on the end terminals of the ET-Plus following a 2005 redesign.
“We’ve given them a deadline to provide the research we’re asking for. If they can’t prove to us it’s safe for use on Virginia roads, then we’re not going to use it, and we’ll begin to inventory where the product is installed and look into removing them,”Marshall Herman of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) told the New York Times.
Trinity spokesman Jack Todd said the company “will engage directly with that agency to discuss and address their letter.” VDOT officials say they will ban the ET-Plus if proof of its safety is not provided by Oct. 24.
Florida is among the states that has used the ET-Plus guardrail terminals on its highways. Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles data show six fatal vehicle accidents and 159 injuries involving guardrail ends in Florida in 2012.
Virginia’s Action Is the Latest Over ET-Plus
Concerns over the ET-Plus were originally raised by safety advocate Joshua Harman, who has filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit against the Dallas-based Trinity Highway Products LLC. The trial began Oct. 13 in Marshall, Texas.
Harman alleges that Trinity changed the dimensions of the ET-Plus end terminal without notifying states.The changes transformed the guardrails from impact-absorbers into lethal spears, Harman says.
Similar allegations have been raised in lawsuits filed across the country. The suits blame the guardrails for more than a dozen accidents, five deaths and numerous serious injuries, including cases in which vehicles crashed into guardrails and motorists lost legs, according to ABC News.
Internal Trinity emails obtained by ABC News show that reducing the dimensions of the ET-Plus would save the company $2 per end terminal. “That’s $50,000 a year and $250,000 in five years,” the memo states.
Nevada banned the ET-Plus in January. In September, research commissioned by the state of Missouri found that, compared to another Trinity guardrail (the ET-2000), the ET-Plus “was 1.36 times more likely to produce a severe injury and 2.86 times more likely to produce a fatality,” according to an article on Autoblog. Missouri banned further installation of the ET-Plus on Sept. 24, and Massachusetts followed suit on Sept. 30.
Although the ET-Plus passed federal crash standards in 2012 and was deemed eligible for federal aid reimbursement by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), officials say a nationwide guardrail study has the agency’s support.
“We’re interested in looking at how these devices perform in the real world after they pass crash testing,” FHWA official Nicholas Artimovich told ABC News.