RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia transportation officials plan to remove installations of a common highway-guardrail system amid safety concerns.
Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman Marshall Herman tells The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/1tBRzf9 ) that the agency also plans to seek reimbursement for the removal cost from the system’s manufacturer, Trinity Industry.
Trinity stopped shipments of its ET-Plus guardrails last week after a Texas jury ordered it to pay at least $175 million for misleading regulators. A whistleblower says the company changed the guardrails’ design but didn’t inform regulators for several years.
Virginia banned the use of Trinity’s products on after the company missed a deadline to submit plans for additional crash testing.
Trinity spokesman Jeff Eller tells the newspaper that the company is moving to begin the testing requested by Virginia and the federal government.
___
Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
