Highway guardrails pose potential risk

A Texas jury found a guardrail company made fraudulent claims to the federal government in court Monday.

The jury found Trinity Industries should pay the federal government and a competitor who reported the claims for more than half a billion dollars. Trinity now must pay $175 million in damages.

The company was found to have defrauded the government by modifying the end cap of its guardrails and failing to tell the federal government and states about the change.

The change to the guardrail was only by 1 inch, but that one modification, according to the lawsuit, was significant enough to cause the guardrail to malfunction by spearing into vehicles instead of absorbing the impact of the crash.

A Trinity official estimated that making one of the modifications reducing a piece of metal from 5 inches to 4 — would save the company $2 per guardrail end terminal, $50,000 per year and $250,000 over five years.

But the drivers ABC-7 spoke with were not worried about the potential unsafe driving conditions.

“In Colorado they rarely have those things, because there you are lucky to have a guardrail in those mountain areas,” one driver said. “So to me the guardrails really don’t make a big deal.”

Following the verdict Trinity released a statement, saying, “The Company respects the jury’s decision. However, Trinity believes the decision cannot and will not withstand legal scrutiny. The Company strongly believes the courts will affirm its position.”

Four states have already threatened to drop the use of the guardrails. Those include Massachusetts, Nevada, Missouri and Virginia.

Federal Highway Administrators are giving Trinity until the end of the month to present evidence the rails are safe or stop installing new ones. There is still no word from the feds or Texas about whether they plan to seek replacement of rails already installed.