DALLAS - A News 8 investigation has found The Texas Department of Transportation used untested equipment on the HOV lanes on Interstate 635.
And as TxDOT delayed fixing the problem, some motorists on I-635 were critically injured, even killed.
Walt Frier, a former Dallas officer and security expert, is severely brain damaged and now has a hard time even comprehending his whereabouts. An attendant at a rehab facility holds Frier by the pants to keep him from wandering away.
Frier's brain damage was caused by a crash in the HOV lane. He was on his motorcycle, obeying all traffic laws when a driver swerved into the HOV lane and hit him.
"If there had been pylons there it wouldn't have happened," said Vanessa Frier, Walt's wife. "The wreck would not have happened because she wouldn't have been able to cross over."
The most important safety component of TxDOT's HOV lanes on I-635 are plastic pylon tubes connected to a hard plastic base. They're supposed to keep drivers from crossing over and causing wrecks.
But, at the time of Frier's crash, thousands of pylon tubes had been knocked out or missing for up to a year-and-a-half.
Why did they perform so poorly? Perhaps because they were never tested to see if they would stay in place.
"It is their responsibility to take care of this, and they have failed that responsibility miserably," Mrs. Frier.
Some products are road tested to make sure they'll work, but the federal government doesn't require it.
So, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) approved the I-635 pylons for use even though "no road tubes ... were in place" during the testing process.
While TxDOT's safety plan for the HOV lanes required that the tubes stay in place, TxDOT had no idea if they would work, and they didn't.
"What I'm saying is this criteria is in place and that's what TxDOT relies on," said Cynthia Northrop White, a TxDOT spokeswoman.
White said "if the criteria needs to be changed that's going to come from FHWA," and she said other agencies don't have the power to tell then to do so.
That simply is unacceptable to Sen.Wendy Davis, who is on the Transportation Committee. Davis said TxDOT must pay more attention to safety and tell the FHWA to improve its testing standards.
"It should be the responsibility of TxDOT as a state agency to communicate with a federal agency about that problem," Davis said.
Partly in response to News 8 reports, TxDOT and Dallas Area Rapid Transit completed a $450,000 project to replace all the I-635 pylon tubes in October. The new product has been tested and can withstand up to 200 hits.
Before that job was done, a mother trying to avoid a crash hit slammed into a base in the HOV lane. Her two-year-old was partially ejected from the vehicle and died.
"TxDOT did not replace that equipment when it clearly was failing to provide the barrier it was expected to provide," Davis said.
"Unfortunately, when you're working with vendors, you're working with other agencies, things take a little bit of time," White said. "It's not an instantaneous issue that's going to be resolved."
As for Frier, he may never fully recover from his brain injuries.
"Their lives have been ruined over something that could have been fixed and should have been fixed," Mrs. Frier said.
