John Schroer, Commissioner of Tennessee's Department of Transportation, has corroborated some of these claims. ![]() Tennessee Officials Worry About Guardrail End Terminal Safety Lawsuits accuse Lindsay of failing to seek independent safety testing for the guardrail system the company that tested the X-LITE guardrail is owned by the Lindsay Corporation. Often describing severe injuries, including a leg amputation, or a loved one's death, the plaintiffs allege that Lindsay Transportation Solutions failed to disclose "known problems and defects" with the X-LITE's design. Families also claim that the guardrails come with inscrutable instructions and that, as a result, construction crews have been unable to install them correctly. X-LITE guardrails, on the other hand, are said to bear a significant design defect that prevents them from telescoping properly. Most guardrails, Knox News reports, are designed to telescope upon impact, preventing the guardrail's metal end from piercing vehicles, or worse, the bodies of a driver or passenger. X-Lite Guardrail Deaths: Is The X-LITE Guardrail Defective? Similar accidents, all attributed to the X-LITE's allegedly faulty design, have been reported in several other lawsuits. She suffered severe internal damage and ultimately died, the lawsuit claims. The passenger, a young woman, was struck by the guardrail, suffering "immediate, horrible, and agonizing pain," court records report. "Instead of absorbing the crash's impact, as designed," US News & World Report writes, "beams from the rail were allowed to 'pierce through the GMC's exterior and frame,' puncturing all the way through to the backseat, on the passenger side." One lawsuit, filed in South Carolina in January 2018, explains what happened when an SUV went off the road, colliding with an X-LITE guardrail in Spartanburg. The lawsuits describe horrific injuries and several fatal crashes. ![]() In their lawsuits, families call the X-LITE guardrail "dangerous and defective," saying that, unlike other guardrail systems, the X-LITE model fails to telescope in a crash. Tennessee, which has the third most X-LITE guardrails installed, has declared its intentions to replace all of the affected guardrails on its roadways.Ī number of other states, including Rhode Island, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia have followed suit, passing their own bans on the controversial technology. In March 2018, Texas announced a similar initiative, banning the use of X-LITE guardrails and detailing plans to replace over 1,900 of the end terminals from its own highways. In Maryland, for example, officials from the state's Highway Administration intend to replace about 900 X-LITE guardrail end terminals, upgrading the system to comply with a stricter set of safety standards put in place last July. Many states have already announced plans to remove and replace X-LITE guardrails on state-owned roads. States Announce Plans To Remove X-LITE Guardrails From Use Severe guardrail injuries have been reported elsewhere. An estimated 14,000 of the guardrails are in use nationwide, with concentrations of the allegedly defective product in seven states:ĭeaths have been confirmed in New Hampshire, Texas, Missouri, Tennessee, South Carolina and Virginia. ![]() According to a report from the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highways Administration, X-LITE guardrails have been installed in at least 29 states. Nationwide, X-LITE guardrails make up about 1% of the total guardrail stock. Are Nation's Guardrails Unsafe & Outdated?
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