U.S. seeks more Trinity guardrail tests after jury verdict

By Jonathan Stempel (Reuters) - The U.S. government on Tuesday asked Trinity Industries Inc to conduct additional crash testing of a highway guardrail system that had been the subject of a fraud verdict by a federal jury a day earlier. In a letter to Trinity, the Federal Highway Administration said it may suspend or revoke eligibility of federal funding for the ET-Plus system if Trinity does not submit a crash testing plan by Oct. 31. On Monday, a jury in Marshall, Texas, found that Trinity defrauded the government in its sale of ET-Plus to U.S. states, which in turn got federal reimbursements. Trinity had been found liable after a whistleblower claimed it had failed to disclose a design change made several years ago, and which could result in drivers being injured rather than protected. Jurors awarded $175 million, which under the federal False Claims Act would be tripled to $525 million.