NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — As part of a year-long investigation "Unguarded," 10 investigates has not only located dozens of improperly installed guardrails across Florida roads, but the state has invested and fixed thousands of them across the Sunshine State.
Now, Pasco County is implementing a new policy in hopes roads no longer have potentially deadly guardrails.
Earlier this year, 10 Investigates introduced you to college student Ryan Wentz. He has no problem identifying issues on guardrails that could be potentially deadly after learning from “The Guardrail Guy” Steve Eimers about problems on the roadways.
Wentz does see a problem though – these guardrails were installed improperly in the first place.
He recently found three guardrails along Little Road, Seven Springs Boulevard and Strauber Memorial Highway with potential problems along Pasco County roads. He emailed inspectors his findings and questioned why these guardrails have been passing inspection year after year even though these were improperly installed.
“It would help if they're in. Their inspectors were educated on all the systems, and they were catching it the first time,” Wentz asked.
10 Investigates also emailed Pasco County. They tell us that they have located 92 guardrails that have been identified with missing parts. They were identified as part of a new guardrail assessment plan that was implemented in May.
The county says this will ensure guardrails are not improperly installed going forward. A spokesperson has sent a statement saying in part:
“The Pasco County Public Works Department performs proactive and reactive guardrail assessments. Each county-maintained guardrail is proactively checked once every two years following an assessment schedule. We also perform reactive guardrail assessments. These occur whenever someone reports an issue with a guardrail.
Each guardrail is assessed and given a pass or fail rating based on the Maintenance Rating Program standards. All failed guardrail assessments are entered into our Work Asset Management System for corrective maintenance to be performed (in-house or contracted).”
For Wentz, he can only hope that’s true, and that other counties do the same to ensure all pieces of hardware on the sides of the road are installed correctly.
“I guess in terms of like going back and looking at their policies, seeing where they can reevaluate, would you like to see other counties in the area take a second look? Certainly, they need to take a look at their inspectors and make sure that they're doing everything that they can to protect us,” Wentz said.
The state of Florida has also identified and fixed thousands of guardrails along state roads. A spokesperson with the Florida Department of Transportation tells us that all of their guardrails should be repaired by the end of the year.
To watch our full series — Unguarded — you can find that streaming right now on the free 10 Tampa Bay Plus app.