Crash Tests Set to Gauge Safety of Guardrails

DALLAS (AP/STAFF) — Federal officials say crash tests will show by early 2015 whether guardrails found along many U.S. highways are safe. The Federal Highway Administration said Wednesday that crash tests involving guardrails made by Trinity Industries Inc. will be done at an independent lab in San Antonio. Critics say that a 2005 design change made it more likely that cars would be impaled if they hit either end of a guardrail head-on. The company faces several wrongful-death and injury lawsuits. Trinity stopped selling the ET-Plus guardrails last month after a Marshall, Texas jury ruled that the company should pay at least $175 million for failing to tell regulators about the change. Trinity has hinted that it will appeal.