Failure to Protect: roadside guardrails turn dangerous when not properly installed
(InvestigateTV) — The Federal Highway Administration defines a guardrail as a safety barrier intended to shield a driver who has left the road.
The American Traffic Safety Association says guardrails can reduce serious injuries by up to 47% when installed correctly.
When not installed correctly, experts say they can turn from lifesaving devices to killers on the road.
Joey Beck knows just how catastrophic this device meant for safety can be.
“I always thought guardrails are there to protect you from your car rolling over here or going in the river.”
Now, when Joey sees guardrails he thinks of death.
In 2019, his son Seth died after crashing into a guardrail on a Missouri highway.
“Well, he was a good-looking kid. He was a pretty good athlete and he was very smart. Why did it have to be him? I would rather it have been me.”
Crash-scene photos from the investigation show the mangled steel lying on the road.
Seth’s car was unrecognizable. Joey said the guardrail ripped the top of his son’s car off at the welds.
“It went straight through all the way out of his car.”
He had never heard of any issues of people dying after hitting guardrails before his son’s death.
More Common than People Realize
Attorney Kent Emison said deaths of this type are more common than people realize. He has handled more than a dozen guardrail injury and death cases.
According to Emison, these cases span across the country where guardrails have speared vehicles causing serious injuries like leg amputations, or worse, killing people.
“Several people were killed in Missouri, near Columbia, Missouri when the guardrail went right through a GM Tahoe.”
In many of those cases, he said the guardrails were installed improperly.
“People can’t understand how the smallest error in assembling an end terminal and guardrail could result in a death.”
Emison showed InvestigateTV this example of one of those small errors. He said simply putting the circled bracket below upside down caused a failure.
In 2020, a 54-year-old woman hit the guardrail, pictured above, in Oklahoma.
According to Emison, any installation error could contribute to the guardrail locking up, turning the device into a spear.
“The end terminal and guardrail went right through this full-size pickup and killed the lady driving,” Emison said.
Training Not Required for Installation or Repairs
Brian Coon is a crash deconstructionist who has inspected hundreds of guardrail crashes for attorneys and has a doctorate in engineering.
“(People) need to understand the amount of technical finesse that goes into a guardrail design.”
Coon said he’s seen dozens of crashes involving guardrails that people should have been able to walk away from, but instead, they were killed.
“The problem with the installation of a guardrail is it looks like nuts and bolts and you just assemble it, but it actually does require training.”
The federal government does not require training and doesn’t have standards for who can install or replace guardrails, saying that decision is up to the states.
Private contractors and Department of Transportation workers often do the installation and repairs, but that’s not always the case.
This lawsuit filed in Florida alleges inmates repaired a damaged guardrail improperly causing a man to lose his leg after he crashed into it.
Coon believes tens of thousands of guardrails are improperly installed at some level across America. He said the federal government could be doing more to make these guardrails safer.
“They could require more inspections. They could require more testing,”
More inspections are exactly what a transportation research group urged the Federal Highway Administration to do. The research group said every guardrail should get a comprehensive, in-service performance evaluation.
Letter to FHWA by Wade Smith - Executive Producer on Scribd
That was back in 2014, as seen in the above pdf file.
Emison told InvestigateTV that still hasn’t happened.
Unanswered Questions
The Federal Highway Administration is responsible for making sure our roads are safe.
It declined to sit down for an interview about our country’s guardrail system and the calls for more inspections.
It would only say each state is responsible for its roads. InvestigateTV has plenty of questions for the agency, including:
- What questions remain unanswered for our investigators?
- Why doesn’t the Federal Highway Administration require states to train people to install guardrails?
- Why doesn’t it require states to inspect guardrails after they’re repaired or replaced to make sure the work was done properly?
- Why doesn’t the agency look at these guardrails after deadly crashes to see if there is an issue?
Our investigators continue to press the federal government on as we continue our reports on dangerous guardrails.
Addressing the Problem
The state of Florida recently reviewed all 26,000 guardrails installed across the state.
The Florida Department of Transportation told InvestigateTV that one-third of those rails were not in compliance at the time of inspection.
Work is underway to repair or replace each out-of-compliance guardrail.
The agency hopes to have the work completed by the end of 2023.
Read the full response from Deputy Communications Director Michael Williams:
The Florida Department of Transportation has reviewed 100% of the 26,000 guardrail installations across all state-owned roadways to ensure compliance. Through this review, roughly 1/3 of the trailing end treatments, end terminals, and crash cushions qualified for some sort of repair while the remainder of our inventory involved relatively minor routine maintenance and repairs, such as replacing reflective markings and ground grading improvements. FDOT accelerated all routine maintenance, meaning FDOT is not waiting for the 2-year cycle guardrail systems typically go through for any needed maintenance to ensure all guardrails on state-owned facilities meet current maintenance standards. Costs associated with the repairs are being handled with in-house forces or through existing maintenance contracts. We anticipate we will complete all work by the end of December. To date, repairs and routine maintenance to our entire inventory are 60% complete.
FDOT is working closely with our asset maintenance contractors to ensure relevant training on installation requirements and procedures are provided and followed statewide.
While these repairs help enhance safety on our roadways, driver behavior remains the number one factor in preventing fatalities and serious injuries. Motorists play vital role they play in creating a safe driving experience by ensuring they have a designated driver, and refrain from operating a vehicle while distracted or drowsy.
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