LINCOLN, Neb. — The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is commenting for the first time about electric vehicles and guardrails.
Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chair, went to Nebraska where she participated in a roundtable discussion with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, about potential solutions when it comes to electric vehicles, their safety risks, and their impact on infrastructure.
On X, United States Senator Deb Fischer thanked Homendy for accepting her invitation to take part in the discussion.
Homendy then replied, “as the country moves forward toward EV adoption, NTSB's mission is to ensure safety isn’t left behind.”
That was followed up with video of a crash test involving a Rivian and a concrete barrier which had a much different result than the crash test from a few months back involving a Rivian and a guardrail. The Rivian completely took out the guardrail.
We’ve learned that electric vehicles are much heavier than gas-powered ones, and that’s why we are seeing crash tests taking place across the country as more electric vehicles are out on our roads.
In late June, 10 Investigates spoke with James Kovar, an assistant research scientist at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. They too, released video of a crash test involving a Tesla and a guardrail. He says these tests are step one to improving infrastructure on our roadways. He says step two is mitigating any concern.
“This is not a cause for panic. The vehicle fleet changes over time, and so does our roadside safety hardware,” Kovar said.
On X, the NTSB chair went on to say that "the manual for assessing safety hardware needs to be updated based on research and testing and development which according to scholars could take decades. Already aging infrastructure including breakaway infrastructure will need to be upgraded to accommodate heavier weights of all vehicles."
You can watch the 10 Investigates Special “Unguarded” streaming now.