25 Investigates

Growing roadside risk with Massachusetts guardrails

By: Mike Beaudet, Investigative Reporter, Jason Solowski, Producer

(

) -- A bad situation on Massachusetts roadways is becoming worse in the wake of the brutal winter storms of 2015.

FOX Undercover found nearly 200 damaged guard rail end terminals during random checks of highways in Eastern Massachusetts. The discovery is raising concerns with safety advocates who believe guardrails in Massachusetts were already posing a risk to drivers.

“You've got a severe issue. The safety of the traveling public is at stake,” said whistleblower Joshua Harman while examining storm damaged guardrails with FOX Undercover. “These things will not work.” Harman won a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Trinity Industries last October. Trinity manufactures the ET-Plus guard rail end terminal, which has been linked to injuries and deaths across the country.

A jury found the company defrauded the federal government when it changed the design of the end terminal in 2005, but didn't tell the Federal Highway Administration.

“If this was in its normal state, I call them killer heads,” said Harman. “Because it's damaged it is more dangerous.”

FOX Undercover showed photos of the damaged end terminals, most of which are ET-Plus end terminals, to Sean Kane, president of Safety Research & Strategies.

“There's no question that this is a safety hazard,” said Kane. “When they're compromised like this and you hit one, you're not going to get that kind of performance. You're going to end up with probably some spearing injuries, some rollovers, things along those lines and those are going to result in much more serious injuries and fatalities.”

Test crash video shows how the ET-Plus is supposed to work when it's hit.

The force of the impact drives the end terminal forward and the guard rail behind it is pushed out and away like a ribbon.

But in case after case the guard rails lock up and pierce vehicles like giant spears, maiming and killing drivers.

Dianna Allen lost part of her leg in 2011 after she hit an ET-Plus end terminal in Webster.

“I remember looking down after we stopped, and there was no foot. There was just my bone,” Allen told FOX Undercover last year.

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After that interview, MassDOT sent Trinity Industries a letter, saying Massachusetts would stop installing the ET-Plus end terminals "...due to ongoing concerns with its crashworthiness."

But MassDOT documents obtained by FOX Undercover show there are nearly 7,000 of the questionable ET-Pluses already of Massachusetts roadways.

MassDOT says it is replacing storm damaged guard rail end terminals, but it does not plan to replace all of the ET-Plus end terminals.

“Common sense doesn't tell you to get rid of these?” asked FOX Undercover's Mike Beaudet to MassDOT Acting Highway Administrator Tim Tinlin.

“Common sense tells me when you have a product that passes all the crash testing then it's ok to use, then you have the right to use it,” replied Tinlin. “But it also tells me if you have other products that are available to you and there's a sensitivity about one why not use the other 11?”

Tinlin points out the federal government hasn't stopped states from installing the ET-Plus end terminals.

While those end terminals did pass crash tests in December and January, those tests are now under scrutiny with word the Justice Department has started a criminal investigation looking at Trinity's relationship with the Federal Highway Administration.

Tinlin says replacing all the storm damaged guardrails is a daunting task itself, but one that MassDOT is in the process of doing.

He blames the extensive damage on the amount of snow burying the guardrails, which were then hit by plows and other vehicles.

MassDOT is looking at whether it can do a better job marking the guardrails for next winter.

Trinity Industries did not respond to an initial request for comment, but a company spokesperson contacted FOX25 after our story aired, and referred us to a company website, http://www.etplusfacts.com/, which stated, “Trinity is confident in the performance of all our company's products, including the ET Plus® System.”