Legal Problems Arising out of Highway Programs. Topic 27-01. Transportation Agency Liability for Roadside Safety Hardware

The objective of this research is to produce a report that includes a description of the liability that applies to parties involved in the design, manufacture, testing, certification, and installation of roadside safety hardware. These parties include state and local transportation agencies, the relevant federal highway entity, installation contractors, testing facilities, designers, and manufacturers.   Among the issues to be researched are: (1) In an injury claim allegedly caused by deficient roadside safety hardware, what kind of claims have been made against each party involved in the design, manufacture, testing, certification, selection, installation, and maintenance of the roadside safety hardware? (2) In a claim for injury attributable to roadside safety hardware, what legal or factual defenses would be used by each party responsible for designing, manufacturing, testing, approving, installing, or maintaining the safety hardware? (3) If a state agency tests roadside safety hardware, under what circumstances, if any, can a state have liability for alleged errors or deficiencies in its testing? (4) Are state transportation agencies responsible for evaluating the performance of roadside safety hardware tested under MASH guidelines and certified by FHWA? (5) Does a state agency have possible liability if it does not inspect a device according to the manufacturer's specifications and there is a claim an inspection would have uncovered and caused repair of a deficiency allegedly causing an injury?

• Record URL:
  http://apps.trb.org/cmsfeed/TRBNetProjectDisplay.asp?ProjectID=5559
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Contract to a Performing Organization has not yet been awarded.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Proposed
• Funding: $100000
• Contract Numbers:

  Project 20-06, Topic 27-01

• Sponsor Organizations:

  National Cooperative Highway Research Program

  Transportation Research Board
  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO)

  444 North Capitol Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Project Managers:

  Chisholm-Smith, Gwen

• Start Date: 20230912
• Expected Completion Date: 0
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Barriers (Roads); Highway safety; Liability; Roadside; State departments of transportation; Traffic control devices
• Subject Areas: Highways; Law; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; Terminals and Facilities;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01887172
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Transportation Research Board
• Contract Numbers: Project 20-06, Topic 27-01
• Files: TRB, RIP
• Created Date: Jul 10 2023 9:19PM