Wrongful Death Lawsuit Claims Guardrail Design Ends Up Impaling Auto Accident Victims

According to allegations raised in wrongful death lawsuit recently filed in Tennessee, thousands of guardrails found along roads and highways throughout the United States are defectively designed and can end up impaling cars during an auto accident, increasing the risk of catastrophic injury, instead of reducing it.

The families of Lauren Beuttel and Jacob D. Davison filed the complaint this week in Cumberland County Circuit Court in Tennessee, naming Lindsay Corporation, a guardrail manufacturer manufacturer, as a defendant, along with Valmont Industries, Armorflex International, Barrier Systems and Cumberland Guardrail, Inc.

In addition to the wrongful death lawsuit, the families are also petitioning federal highway safety officials to have the X-Lite guardrail removed from roads.

Buettel and Davison died in a June 29, 2016 auto accident on Interstate 40 in Cumberland County. Davison was driving and Beuttel was a rear seat passenger in a 2004 Toyota Solara, which drove off the road, impacting an X-Lite guardrail end terminal.

The complaint indicates that the end terminal should have telescoped with the impact, absorbing and giving way to the vehicle enough to prevent injury and to slow it to a halt. The Toyota gave way instead, and Buettel, 21, and Davison, 18, were impaled and killed.

“As a result, when the X-Lite end terminal was impacted by the Toyota, it was not able to maintain its integrity and stop the W-beams, thus allowing the W-beams to pierce through the Toyota’s front fender, cowling and floor board and enter it’s driver’s side occupant compartment,” the lawsuit explains. “Further, the W-beams traveled through the occupant compartment to the trunk area before turning and re-entering the occupant compartment.”

The two deaths are not the only guardrail injuries attributed to the X-Lite end terminal. At least five other similar guardrail deaths have occurred in recent years in Tennessee, Missouri and Virginia.

The lawsuit joins a similar claim by the family of Wilbert Byrd, also filed recently, and the family of Hannah Elmers, 17, is expected to file a similar claim in the near future. She died in November in Tennessee as well, also impaled on an X-Lite guardrail.

Concerns about the guardrail’s design are not limited to the victims’ families. In April, the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) sent a letter to the Federal Highway Administration, expressing concerns about the X-Lite. The letter noted that TDOT field staff conducted field inspections and then had discussions with Lindsay Corporation over the design of the X-Lite, but the letter states that the discussions did not end in a resolution to the state’s concerns.

Tennessee and Missouri have decided to remove the X-Lite from those state’s roads. So far, TDOT has reportedly replaced about 100 of the 496 X-lite guardrail end terminals throughout the state. The guardrails are also used in Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, and West Virginia.