Imagine you just buried your daughter after a tragic car accident that saw her get impaled by a guardrail. Then imagine you got a bill in the mail from the state asking you to pay for the replacement of the guardrail. How would that make you feel?
Hannah Eimers, 17, was driving her father's car when her car left the road, traveled into the median and hit the end of a guardrail with the driver's side door, according to a police report. Instead of deflecting the car or absorbing the impact, the guardrail impaled the vehicle, hitting Hannah in the head and chest and pushing her into the back seat.
Four months later, her father, Steven, received a $2,970 bill from the Tennessee Department of Transportation, addressed to Hannah, for the cost of labor and materials to install a new guardrail at the scene.