Frankensteined guardrails on Georgia roads

ATLANTA — There’s a monster on Georgia’s roads. Likelihood is you will by no means be capable to spot it even in case you’re wanting proper at it. 

It is referred to as a “Frankensteined” guardrail. One Georgia household mentioned it killed their solely daughter. 

“How did this even occur?” mentioned Cathy Alonzo, whose daughter Isabella was killed after a crash. “How are you simply driving down the highway and the entire sudden your automobile is impaled by a guardrail?” 

That is a query she and her husband, Mark, have been asking for the previous two years. How did a tool, meant to guard drivers, kill their 18-year-old daughter? 

“As quickly as I noticed the automobile, I used to be crying, and I mentioned, ‘this isn’t going to be good,'” Mark Alonzo mentioned. “I can’t even acknowledge her automobile.”  

The automobile was left mangled after it struck a guardrail on I-75 in Peach County in March 2020. 

“The guardrail was sticking 10 ft up within the air,” Mark mentioned. “ It wasn’t proper. I imply guardrails aren’t purported to look that method. That’s the primary time I’d heard ‘Frankenstein.'”

A “Frankensteined” guardrail is just not a model or kind of guardrail. It is a time period used to explain a guardrail made with combined elements from completely different producers. The elements that do not work collectively finally create a monster on the roads. 

“It may be lethal,” mechanical engineer Ben Railsback mentioned.

Railsback got here up with the time period “Frankensteined” after he investigated a crash in Colorado the place a lady struck a guardrail made up of combined elements. 

“It simply jammed up the system and kinked the guardrail, forcing it again round into the facet of her car,” Railsback mentioned. 

The lady in that crash survived, and Colorado’s Division of Transportation launched a statewide investigation to search out each “Frankensteined” guardrail on the roads. 

Georgia’s Division of Transportation didn’t do the identical after Isabella’s dying. 

11Alive’s investigation uncovered the “Frankensteined” rail Isabella hit was not the one one on Georgia roads. 

The investigative staff discovered not less than three extra: two on Interstate 75 and one on I-285.    

RELATED: ‘It cuts individuals in half’ | Doubtlessly harmful guardrails being eliminated in Georgia following 11Alive investigation

GDOT would not go on digicam however despatched a press release to 11Alive.

“GDOT discovered that the three areas in query don’t characterize the instillation specs recognized by the Division or the producer. As soon as we had been in possession of the checklist held by WXIA, we went to work instantly and all 3 had been reported for overview and scheduled for substitute throughout the week, or at time of this story airing have already been changed. Statewide there are roughly 34,000 finish remedies on our roadway system at any given time. Due to this fact, we don’t imagine this displays a widespread problem. Nevertheless, we’re devoted to working with workers, in addition to contractors, to bolster the set up practices which can be acceptable by GDOT and FHWA. At any time, if a citizen identifies a bit of infrastructure that they really feel is unsafe, we encourage them to report it to the division in order that there is usually a overview and restore, when needed. With nearly 50,000 lane miles on our system, we all know that the hundreds of thousands of motorists who use our roads day by day are a few of our greatest eyes and advocates for secure roadways.”

Mark mentioned after a crash, it is clear that the guardrail is “Frankensteined.”

“After it’s been hit, I can inform the distinction between one which labored and the one which she hit that didn’t’ work,” Mark mentioned.

However earlier than that, he mentioned all of them look the identical. 

The Alonzos mentioned GDOT should not await another person to identify these rails when the potential for harm is so catastrophic. 

“The physician mentioned the guardrail had separated her, her backbone from her pelvis, and crushed her pelvis,” Mark mentioned describing his daughter’s accidents. 

Isabella stayed alive simply lengthy sufficient for her dad and mom to say goodbye. 

“I requested her, as a result of they already advised us she wasn’t going to make it, and I mentioned, ‘do you see Jesus?’ And he or she shook her head, and I mentioned, ‘effectively, go together with Jesus. And we’ll see you quickly,'” Mark mentioned, preventing again tears as he relived the reminiscence. 

“This shouldn’t have occurred to our daughter and I don’t need it to occur to anybody else’s baby,” Cathy mentioned. 

The Alonzos are suing GDOT for Isabella’s dying. 

As for the “Frankensteined” guardrails 11Alive discovered, GDOT mentioned it changed them inside every week. 

It is price noting one of many “Frankensteined” guardrails discovered by 11Alive investigators was on the highway for greater than a 12 months. No GDOT employee ever noticed it or alerted the company that it should not be there. 

11Alive investigators reached out to 2 producers whose elements had been discovered being utilized by contractors to create “Frankensteined” guardrails. 

The corporate, Highway Programs, Inc (RSI), advised us:

“These improperly put in guardrail terminals could be very harmful. Our merchandise being correctly put in and correctly utilized at web site areas the place the terminals are ready carry out as they had been designed and examined is of nice significance to RSI. We developed modern interactive on-line coaching to offer Contractors and State DOT’s the instruments wanted to correctly set up, examine, and preserve our merchandise. You could find our coaching right here. We stand prepared to offer the coaching wanted to guarantee our merchandise are correctly put in.”

One other firm referred to as Trinity, whose elements had been being mixed with RSI’s didn’t return the request for remark.