Trinity Industries Found Guilty of Fraud

MARSHALL — A company accused of selling defective guardrails has been found guilty of fraud. A federal jury in Marshall says Texas firm Trinity Industries should pay $175 million for misleading regulators about the re-design of its guardrails in 2005. Under federal law, that sum will be tripled to as much as one billion dollars. Some of that will go to whistle – blower Josuah Harmon who testified the re-design meant that instead of being cushioned, vehicles colliding with the ends of the guardrails could be impaled, leading to at least a dozen accidents, some fatal. This is the second time the case has been tried. The first ended in a mistrial in July.