The city of Stratford has launched a half billion dollar lawsuit against a U.S. guard rail maker for its allegedly dangerous and defective guard rail design.
Mayor Dan Mathieson says his city, is one of many across Canada that has these guard rails made by a U.S. company called Trinity Industries.
“Through advice of our legal counsel I decided that a class action lawsuit was best, as there are thousands upon thousands of these installed across the country within hundreds of municipalities,”
Two cities in the U.S. have lawsuits pending against the company for allegedly failing to notify them that changes made to the guardrail system in recent years have been installed without undergoing proper safety testing.
The claim, is that the design of the guardrail does not properly absorb the impact of a vehicle hitting it the way it is supposed to but rather the guardrail in some case has gone right through the vehicle impaling drivers.
Mathieson says he is not aware of any injuries as a result of the guardrails in this area. He says that as soon as he learned about the potential problem he took the lead on initiating a lawsuit on behalf of Stratford and other Canadian cities.
“It will give us an opportunity to share the cost of that lawsuit across all of the municipalities, to seek remedy for all of us and to have some form of protection for liability and any lawsuits that could flow. In the meantime while we try to sort this out so that municipalities don't bear the brunt and risk of this type of install,” says Mathieson.
Trinity Industries is denying the claim that modifications made to their guardrails has made them unsafe in any way.
The federal highway administration in the U.S. has currently ordered them to retest their rails. The product passed the first series of four tests and results of the final four are still awaiting release.
