States: Highway Guardrails May Be Lethal

A number of states are claiming highway guardrails are potentially lethal to drivers. Last month, Missouri banned further installation of guardrail heads. State official say guardrail heads have malfunctioned and essentially turn into spears when cars hit them. Nevada has banned the purchase of rail heads, as has Massachusetts, over safety concerns. The Federal Highway Administration has adamantly denied there’s a problem, even though the guardrails were blamed for five deaths and many injuries in lawsuits throughout the country. However, Nicholas Artimovich, a senior engineer with the FHA, wrote in an email in 2012 that it’s “hard to ignore the fatal results” of the guardrails. “Nothing was done and now people’s lives are being taken,” said Darius Williams, who was injured by a guardrail during a crash in North Carolina in 2014.