Iowa not banning controversial guardrails

CEDAR RAPIDS - Iowa transportation officials will wait for new crash tests before taking any action on a guardrail 'crash cushion” called ET-Plus, which several states have either banned or removed due to safety concerns.

Roughly 1,200 of the 16,000 guardrail end caps around Eastern Iowa and the state are Trinity Industry Inc.'s ET-Plus, said Steve Gent, Iowa Department of Transportation director of traffic and safety.

'We are not aware of any serious or fatal injuries from running into any of these ET-Plus guardrails or end treatments in Iowa,” Gent said. 'That's a big thing, and we are monitoring it. But, we haven't taken it off our list yet.”

The ET-Plus remains on the federal list of products eligible for reimbursement, which serves as Iowa's guideline for products allowed in the state, Gent said.

Several states including Oregon, Mississippi, Missouri, Massachusetts, Nevada and Virginia have banned the product. Virginia also plans to remove the product, according to a New York Times report.

The product is a steel plate that slides on to the end of a guardrail, often found near a bridge approach, including along Interstate 380 in Cedar Rapids and I-80 in Iowa City. It is designed as safety measure to force the guardrail away to the side as a vehicle crashes into it. Upon impact, it acts as a 'crash cushion,” Gent said.

But some say the product can malfunction, causing the guardrail to spear through the vehicle and its occupants. ABC's 20/20 investigated claims about the ET-Plus in September.

A federal jury found that Trinity, which makes the ET-Plus, had defrauded the government by getting reimbursements but not fully disclosing design changes nearly a decade ago. The jury awarded $127 million, which could be tripled to $525 million.

A spokesman for Trinity did not return a message seeking comment.

After the verdict, the Federal Highway Administration ordered a new round of crash tests by Oct. 31.

'Just because the lawsuit came out against Trinity doesn't mean that this system is not acceptable and doesn't meet all the crash requirements,” Gent said. 'The systems we have out there have been and continue to be approved by the feds.”

Trinity has stopped shipping the product, which means Iowa will not be installing any new ones until the matter is resolved, Gent said.

Gent said there's a 'real chance the crash tests come back satisfactory.” However, if there is a problem Iowa could be on the hook for about $2.4 million if it has to replace them all, Gent said.

'That's the big thing nobody is talking about yet,” Gent said. 'There's thousands of these systems out there nationwide. The issue is what do we do with all existing ones.”