Occasionally, an article about highway safety, as opposed to safe teen driving specifically, takes me back to the dark night of December 1, 2006.
Today’s New York Times contains an article about state highway safety officials complaining about the safety of guardrails. The article, linked below, discusses a lawsuit going to trial in Texas based on a claim of defective design of a guardrail. In short summary, the claim is that in violation of federal procedures which require a prior report and approval, a guardrail manufacturer narrowed the width of a guardrail, making it weaker, and thus when it was hit by a vehicle, instead of guiding the vehicle along the side of the rail, the guardrail broke, and its exposed point became a spear that severely injured the occupants of the vehicle.
My son Reid died when his car, skidding and then spinning two revolutions on an interstate highway, hit the butt end of a guardrail located next to an exit ramp, right in the middle of the driver’s side door, pushing the door more than two feet into the passenger compartment, and crushing the left side of his chest.
My family briefly considered whether we should bring a lawsuit based on the location and design of the guardrail. A lawyer we know offered to evaluate the case. But in the emotional upheaval of the months following Reid’s crash, we decided that having the State of Connecticut, defending such a claim, point as much blame as possible at Reid and his driving, we decided not to pursue it. It was the right decision based on what we knew at the time, but today’s article brought me back to that decision. Who knows how a case might have turned out.
Meanwhile, we can only hope that attention to this issue will cause highway safety officials to take a harder look at guardrails and their potential to cause serious injury and death.
Here is the link to the Times article:
