The province of Quebec is reviewing a type of guardrail after a series of deadly crashes in the United States.
The ET-Plus guardrails developed by Dallas-based Trinity Industries have been linked to at least 20 deaths.
The company made changes to the end cap of the guardrails in 2005, and last month a court in Texas ruled the company had defrauded the U.S. government for failing to inform authorities.
Guardrails are supposed to collapse when hit in order to absorb the impact of a crash.
However several tests show the squared-off endcaps on the ET-Plus guardrails can jam, and as a result cars hitting the end of a rail get impaled -- leading to serious injuries or death as a spike of hard steel spears though the engine and into the passenger compartment.
There are believed to be 4,500 ET-Plus guardrails installed in Quebec.
"We are going to look to make sure we don't have that same type of problem here in Quebec," said provincial transportation minister Robert Poeti.
New guardrail installations are being suspended, and existing installations will be inspected.
"If the ones we have here are exactly the same, as soon as possible we are going put the modification, if we need modification," said Poeti.
Martin Girard, a spokesperson for Transport Quebec, said the province is not aware of any deaths being caused by the ET-Plus guardrail.
The agency will will conduct spot checks to determine if there is indeed a safety issue, and not examine every single guardrail.
