WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - More than one in four of guardrail systems in Florida linked to serious crashes, even deaths, are located here in South Florida.
That's according to Florida's Department of Transportation that Monday released the results of an inventory done in November to determine how many of the guardrail end terminals, called the ET-Plus, are in our state.
The state conducted the inventory after the Federal Highway Administration requested it. The guardrail maker, Trinity Industries, lost a federal lawsuit over not disclosing a one-inch, cost-saving change made to the design of the guardrail end terminal. FHWA also required Trinity to conduct new crash tests to determine the safety of the guardrail.
FDOT found 450 of the state's 1,678 guardrail systems are in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Broward counties. The controversial guardrail end terminals measure 4 inches, a change from the original design that measured 5 inches. See below for breakdown of the guardrail end terminals in Florida.
"FRACTIONS MATTER"
The safety concern comes down to just fractions of inches.
"Small fractions matter," said Josh Harman, the whistleblower and competitor of Trinity, who discovered the change to the popular ET-Plus guardrail end terminal and sued Trinity over it.
Harman and his measuring tape travel the country warning about the change.
"Let's put it this way, it's the difference between life and death," Harman...
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