Just a year after his death, it's difficult for Emily Jansen to talk about her beloved husband of 27 years, George.
"He never met a stranger, he always met a new friend," she said.
At 59-years-old, George Jansen was looking forward to the last few years of his career as a sales engineer. On a Monday morning in February 2017, he packed up his truck to drive to his hometown, Cincinnati, for a meeting.
Emily still remembers him saying good-bye to their oldest daughter.
"She was reaching up to fix his collar, saying 'Dad, fix your collar. You've got to look good today.' And that's the last vision that I have was before he walked out the door, her fixing his collar," Emily said, with tears welling in her eyes.
Hours later the police showed up at the Jansens' house with life-shattering news. George's truck ran of Interstate 70 and into a guardrail in rural Missouri. He died at the scene.
A family friend who worked in law enforcement went to the crash site and came to a startling conclusion.
"He said George would have been better to hit a brick wall. That guardrail killed him. That guardrail did not do its job," Emily explained.
George Jansen hit an X-LITE guardrail, made by Lindsay Transportation Solutions. It's designed to telescope upon impact, meaning one section of the guardrail slides into another.
But an attorney for the Jansen family says that's not what happened when George Jansen's truck collided with one.
"The actual impact head, the part with the yellow and black hash mark, actually comes off the end of the guardrail, and then there's nothing to prevent it from becoming a lethal spear," Brad Kuhlman of Kuhlman & Lucas LLC explained.
Emily Jansen and her children filed a wrongful death suit against the Lindsay Corporation/Lindsay Transportation Solutions.
Lindsay's Response
In a statement to 41 Action News, Lindsay Transportation Solutions wrote:
"The X-LITE has reduced the number and severity of injuries sustained in automobile accidents. However, it is important to note that guardrail end terminals are designed to mitigate the risk of hitting fixed objects such as utility poles, steep embankments, concrete barriers, and other unyielding objects when a driver fails to stay on the road, but they cannot eliminate all the risks involved with an unintended exit. A variety of factors contribute to the potential for injury when this happens, such as speed, the angle at which a vehicle makes impact, and whether road safety equipment is installed and maintained properly."
The company also pointed to a May 2017 Federal Highway Administration reviewof guardrail performance data. In a memo, officials wrote the data "does not lead to any conclusions that any of the devices, including the Lindsay X-LITE, are unsafe."
In performance data reported monthly to the FHWA, the X-LITE came in 3rd out of ten guardrails in terms of serious and fatal crashes reported. The company points out that Lindsay Transportation Solutions as a whole has the lowest serious and fatal rate of crashes of the three manufacturers in the study.
State Responses
Despite the FHWA memo, the Missouri Department of Transportation decided to remove all X-LITEs from the road in the spring of 2017.
The Kansas Department of Transportation didn't go that far, instead removing the barrier from its qualified product list. That meant no new X-LITE guardrails would be installed. KDOT said they did not recall the X-LITE's because "we are not having performance issues in Kansas."
There are 24 X-LITE guardrails still installed on Kansas roads. For those two dozen remaining, 41 Action News obtained troubling records. A Lindsay company review of the guardrails found installation issues, like missing washers and bolts put in incorrectly.
"The installation modifications identified are being addressed as part of our commitment to inspecting and maintaining our roadside safety programs, and we are actively making the installation modifications on all the guardrails so they perform properly," KDOT spokesman Laurie Arellano wrote in a statement.
We also asked Lindsay Transportation Solutions about the installation errors.
"Proper installation and maintenance of all road safety hardware is critical for its performance. Although each state is responsible for its own installation, inspection and maintenance process for road safety equipment, Lindsay Transportation Solutions has employees across the country that train state officials and installers as to how road safety equipment should be installed and those employees are readily available to troubleshoot any issues"- Lindsay Transportation Solutions
What's Next
While Emily Jansen and her attorney applauded MoDOT's decision to remove all X-LITE guardrails, both said Kansas must follow suit. Jansen wants the guardrails to come down in Kansas and every other state.
"A guardrail that is designed to protect, it did not protect. It did not protect him. It killed him, and I don't want that to happen to other people," she said.
A sunset date is on the horizon for Lindsay's X-LITE. Every few years the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the Federal Highway Administration comes out with new standards for products. The X-LITE, among other products, does not meet the new requirements that go into effect on July 1.
