By Mike Beaudet and Producer Kevin RothsteinDEDHAM, Mass.(
MyFoxBoston.com)-- After another car cut her off while driving down I-395 in Webster, Dianna Allen remembers heading straight for the guard rail.
That August evening in 2011, she slammed into a device known as the guard rail end terminal, a device often marked in bright yellow and black that is meant to protect vehicles and their occupants as much as possible from what are often high-speed collisions.
But the end terminal didn't work as intended, and the guard rail behind it speared Allen's car, cutting off her leg.
"I remember going into the guard rail. I remember having the guard rail come up into my vehicle. And I remember just hearing a lot of gravel and metal," she told FOX Undercover reporter Mike Beaudet. "I remember looking down after we stopped, and there was no foot. There was just my bone."
The guard rail traveled through the passenger compartment of her Cadillac and went out the trunk.
"They also said that if I had been a little bit shorter and a little bit closer to the steering wheel, I probably would've been severed," Allen said. "In half."
It wasn't supposed to happen that way.
When a vehicle hits the end terminals of a guard rail, the device is designed to move with the oncoming car, extruding the guardrail out like a ribbon and absorbing energy from the impact.
But in Allen's case, the end terminal she struck, a model known as the ET-Plus, was found more than 100 feet away from the crash. In a lawsuit, Allen says the ET-Plus is prone to what's known as "throat lock", where the railing is unable to be extruded by the end terminal. The result is often that the guard rail turns into a giant spear that skewers oncoming cars. Horrific crashes across the country have occurred, resulting in more than a dozen lawsuits.
The manufacturer of the ET-Plus, Dallas-based Trinity Industries, stands by its product.
"Trinity has a high degree of confidence in the performance and integrity of the ET-Plus system...", the company said in a statement.
Trinity also points out that the Federal Highway Administration continues to allow the ET-Plus's use on American highways.
The attorney representing Allen, Steven Lawrence, has other clients across the country who say they were injured by a malfunctioning ET-Plus end terminal.
"It's really a nationwide problem," Lawrence said. " I believe that there's at least one person maimed or killed each month. And I believe you're looking at hundreds or thousands of victims when this is all uncovered."
"What is the problem with these Trinity guard rails?" Beaudet asked him.
"They shrunk the device to make it from a functioning product that would save your life to a product that simply does not work. And ends up impaling you, or worse," Lawrence replied.
Lawrence said that Trinity changed the design in 2005 of the ET-Plus, shrinking what's known as a feeder chute from five to four inches. That made the units about $2 dollars cheaper but, according to Lawrence, made them prone to malfunctioning, often with gruesome results.
Trinity is also facing a lawsuit from a whistle blower who says the company knew the ET-Plus was defective yet continued selling it. After a mistrial, a retrial is set for later this month.
Trinity says the whistle blower's allegations are false and misleading. As for the crashes that resulted in guard rails piercing vehicles, Trinity says it is impossible to blame its end terminal without knowing exactly how each crash happened. The company also points out that the Federal Highway Administration's reviewed complaints of the ET-Plus and re-affirmed its approval of the device in 2012 and again this year.
But as of last week, the ET-Plus is no longer an approved product in Massachusetts.
"We're taking steps to suspend use of these Trinity ET-Plus guard rail end treatments," said Frank DePaola, administrator of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation's highway division.
"What's your concern about these guard rail ends?" Beaudet asked him.
"There have been some accidents reported where significant damage to cars or vehicles and personal injury have occurred because of a failure in the manufacture of the end treatment," DePaola replied.
DePaola says hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the modified ET-Plus terminals are on Massachusetts roads and highways. For now, those will remain in place. The directive from MassDOT means that it will no longer buy the ET-Plus. Nevada and Missouri have issued similar orders.
"The woman we talked to believes the state needs to do more than just stop using them in the future," Beaudet said.
"(I) Sympathize with the woman's condition but we need to make sure that we have enough evidence before we go out and do a wholesale change," DePaola replied.
"How much evidence do you need? There are serious injuries, there are deaths all over the country. What's it going to take to make the change?
"What we need to do is first of all find out how prevalent they are, determine what the impact would be to our entire program," DePaola said.
Allen says that's not enough.
"Unless they want to come and walk in my shoes every day... get them off the roads," she said. "Take them away."
