Guardrails function by collapsing after being hit head-on, absorbing the crash's impact and pushing away the metal rail from the vehicle. The Federal Highway Administration oversaw Tuesday testing done by Trinity Industries on potentially dangerous guardrails after the company came under fire for malfunctions in the past.
Trinity introduced design changes in 2005 but did not report such changes to the federal government. As such, the company's ET-Plus guardrail system can malfunction, sending out rails into the vehicle instead of pushing them away, potentially injuring passengers.
Joshua Harman, the whistle-blower who won a False Claims Act suit versus Trinity, said that the company made another design change recently and that too has not been reported to the Federal Highway Administration. This design change enlarged the exit gap on ET-Plus guardrails to avoid jamming at the heart of a suspected malfunction.
Trinity, of course, has denied Harman's claims. Company spokesperson Jeff Eller added that the heads being evaluated are well within production tolerance.
Nicholas A. Gravante, Jr., one of Harman's lawyers, however, counters that Trinity employees have testified regarding the production tolerance for exit gaps on ET-Plus guardrails and that several of the units under evaluation go beyond the limits specified.
"What is the point if they're not testing the same thing as the actual guardrails that were on the road?" asked Gravante.
The guardrails being tested are from the California Department of Transportation. The agency had bought the guardrail systems in June but hasn't gotten around to installing them yet.
According to court records, a Virginia patent case shows that Brian Smith, a top executive from Trinity, testified to ET-Plus exit gaps as having measurements of 0.15 inches. Measurements on the guardrails being tested, however, reveal that four out of eight units have exit gaps sized at 1.25 inches.
With even the slightest changes in exit gap size affecting how guardrails function, the discrepancy in measurements is alarming.
Federal Highway Administration spokesperson Suzanne Emmerling said that officials are already looking into whether or not ET-Plus guardrails already installed on highways have bigger exit gaps, adding workers are already out in three states recording measurements.
Critics have noted that tests must be done at an angle of around five degrees to better represent crashes in real life, simulating more closely how a guardrail would function (or malfunction). According to Federal Highway Administration associate administrator for safety Tony Furst, Tuesday's tests were done to confirm 2005 results. Succeeding tests will incorporate different angles.
