U.S. Opens Criminal Probe Into Highway Guardrails Alleged to Turn Into Spears on Impact
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The U.S. Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation into the use of a highway guardrail system linked to at least eight deaths, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling a new wave of potential woes for manufacturer Trinity Industries Inc.
Word of the inquiry comes weeks after Trinity appeared poised to move on from more than a year of scrutiny in courts and from states over the performance of its embattled ET-Plus, a product meant to blunt the impact of cars that crash headlong into guardrails. In March, Trinity’s system passed a closely watched series of crash tests ordered by the Federal Highway Administration, the government agency that certifies the safety of roadside hardware.