This story first appeared in PA Local, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA taking a fresh, positive look at the incredible people, beautiful places, and delicious food of Pennsylvania. Sign up for free here.
By Tanisha Thomas | Spotlight PA
You’re scrolling through TikTok when you come across a video showing a guardrail you drive past on your way home. A tiny-voiced narrator is astutely pointing out several flaws you likely never spotted before. Curiosity piqued, you click the profile. You find more dissections of Pennsylvania guardrails, lots of them. Then you notice the follower count.
The person behind the clips is a 12-year-old from Lancaster County named Mason Jones, aka “Mason the Guardrail Kid” to his 26,000-plus followers. He posts a video every day raising awareness about damaged guardrails — sometimes called guide rails — around the area and country, and his impromptu infrastructure inspections have led to real action by transportation officials.
“It does feel pretty nice and good,” Mason told PA Local about the impact.
Fans adore him and his videos, which spotlight loose cables and bolts, incorrectly installed rails, or missing struts. There is sometimes pointed criticism of PennDOT alongside warnings like: “This rail will NOT Keep you from going into the creek.”
In other videos, he’s sharing photos of the solar eclipse, dog-sitting, or discussing the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Mason, who says drivers risk being hurt by faulty guardrails, reports any violations he finds to the appropriate officials. He conducts his inspections “pretty often.”
PennDOT says reports from Mason, submitted through the agency’s Customer Care Center, have led to the replacement of a crash-damaged guardrail on Route 272 in Lancaster, the replacement of guardrail bolts on Kirks Mill Road in Chester County, and more.
PennDOT says with “nearly 40,000 miles of roadway and over 25,400 bridges” in its purview, the public is encouraged to report issues.
“Just about every day he is doing something guardrail-related,” Mason’s mother, Christine Miller, said. “We drive around our house and he will have me stop at certain guardrails. He also uses Google Maps and searches all over the United States.”
Mason’s niche interest stemmed from watching another creator who has been a longtime advocate for roadside safety. He found Steve “the Guardrail Guy” Eimers on YouTube last May and was instantly hooked. He took the time to learn more about guardrails, how they function, and how to crash test them.
Eimers, who resides in Knoxville, Tennessee, began campaigning for guardrail safety after his daughter, Hannah, was killed in a 2016 crash when a guardrail speared her car.
“Since Hannah’s crash, I have done a lot more stories. I just go out and find problems, and I highlight them. I tie them to a death or catastrophic injury and pressure the state to inventory their guardrails and fix all the problems,” Eimers said.
His work has connected with viewers, racking up over 100 million views across TikTok and YouTube, including from Mason who views Eimers as a mentor.
Miller said she asked Eimers to send her son a video shoutout for his 11th birthday, and the two have been friends ever since. They were able to meet eight months later at a Transportation Research Board event in Washington, D.C. Mason was the youngest member of the press on hand.
“It was pretty nice being there,” he recalled.
Eimers is thrilled to see his work inspiring others.
“I just started posting some videos on YouTube and all of a sudden people watched them and found a purpose,” he explained. “During my early advocacy, I was a lone ranger. It feels good that I taught people who are teaching other people how to get engaged and find their voice.”
Mason aspires to turn his interest into a career as a guardrail inspector and installer. His mother “couldn’t be more proud of him.”
“Nobody even thinks about guardrails,” she said. “I myself have learned so much from Mason. You just see it on the side of the road and don’t think much of it. You listen to Mason and see how important they are.”
BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.
