Tag Archives: NHTSA

Taking On a Safety Issue: Hazardous Railroad Crossings

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , , , , , ,

I made a Public Comment at the meeting of the Motor Carrier Safety Advisory Committee (MCSAC) on June 6, 2023, related to railway crossing safety. I was motivated to do so by two things.

First of all, I have listened to members of the trucking industry point to the potential of side guards causing an increase in tractor-trailer hang ups on high centered railroad crossings — using it as a basis for opposing a side guard regulation. Yet, in ten years, I have never heard them discuss how they could address this safety problem, which occurs even without side guards.

Secondly, when I was around 26, I worked as a Hospice Pilot Program Analyst for Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan. After some time on the job, one of my coworkers had a baby, who was the delight of her life.  After my family moved away from the Detroit area, we kept in contact mostly through exchanging Christmas cards. One year I received a note from our former boss, who told me that my friend’s now 16 year-old had died when the car in which she was a passenger was hit by a train on her way to her high school. I wrote about her story in a post, Too Often, Too Little, Too Late; A Conspiracy of Silence , in 2015:

“Fast forward to 2013, when I, too, experienced the awful devastation of losing a child [make that two] to an unexpected, horrific, potentially-preventable, premature death due to a car crash [this time hit by a truck]. Now I understood what my friend had faced.

Just recently, I tried to reach out to her again–to no avail–after I ran across the news article and the picture of baby “Joy” when going through boxes at our home. I re-read the details of the crash and discovered that there had been no flashers or guard at the fateful railroad crossing–less than a mile from her high school.

As a bereaved-mom-become-safety-advocate, I wanted to know if something had been done to improve safety at the site of that crash 34 years ago. I was encouraged to find out, from the township responsible for that section of roads, that they had bypassed the option of flashers and guards and immediately closed off that particular dirt road where it crossed the tracks.

A good move. Chances are it saved someone. But it was Too Late for Joy.

Why does it Too Often take a death to wake us up to the dangers that were there all along?”

I did not hear from my friend for 40 years because her grief was so intense and it was hard for her to see me with my family of nine living children. In 2020, out of the blue, I received an email from her. Among other things, she shared with me what she and her husband and younger daughter had done following their tragic loss:

[We] took on the State of Michigan after the train crash that killed [Joy and her friend Hope].  After a public hearing, we convinced the state to close the railroad crossing near [the] High School where the crash occurred.  The crossing was at the bottom of a gravel hill and no warning lights or gates were at the site.  State inspectors would park at the top of the hill and walk down to “inspect” it, too concerned to drive down. The site could not be fixed to make it safe for others and the road leading to it is now closed.  No one else will die there.  During our investigation, we found that many other dangerous railroad sites like this exist.  I was too devastated to do anything about those sites in the way you have, and I admire your courage for that.

June 6, 2023

Administrator Hutcheson,

I hope that FMCSA will seriously consider our attached petition and do what is within your power to make railway crossings safer.

Respectfully,

Jerry & Marianne Karth

Here’s our petition to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: Petition to the FMCSA for Railway Crossing Safety Measures

Here’s our petition a few days earlier to the Federal Railroad Administration: Petition to the FRA for Railway Crossing Safety Measures

Relevant Resources On This Topic:

What can we learn about industry concerns regarding a potential side guard regulation?

Upcoming PBS/Frontline Documentary: “America’s Dangerous Trucks”

Truck Safety, , ,

“FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate deadly truck accidents and the fight over measures that could save thousands of lives. As deaths rise, the documentary examines decades of legal maneuvering, political influence, lax regulation and industry opposition.”

Coming June 13, 10:00 p.m./9 CT.

Watch the trailer here: America’s Dangerous Trucks

May 4, 2013 seems like just yesterday; has anything changed?

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , , ,

There’s no easy way to get through that time of year when we remember how AnnaLeah & Mary were suddenly snatched from this earthly life. How can it have been ten years ago? May 4, 2013 seems like just yesterday.

Read this post all the way through to find out what advances have come about, or skip to the end to find out how you can help. Despite our loud voices continuously raising awareness and pushing for change, progress has been painfully slow. But these are some actions which the USDOT has taken:

  • Rear underride guards are now on the annual commercial motor vehicle inspection checklist (rule issued by FMCSA in December 2021). This is important because poorly-maintained rear guards increase the chance of crash severity.
  • After beginning work on an improved rear guard rule in December 2015, in response to our 2013/2014 petitions, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finally issued an improved rule in July 2022. Incredibly, it fell short of requiring that the guards had the full strength already proven possible by the IIHS testing of nine major trailer manufacturers! We have petitioned NHTSA to reconsider this ill-advised decision.
  • NHTSA began taking applications for membership on an Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP) in July 2022. They finally announced the selected committee members in April 2023. The first ACUP meeting will take place virtually on May 25. I’m thankful that I will, at last, be able to sit “around the table” with a diverse group of stakeholders to hammer out reasonable solutions to this century-old problem.
  • Simultaneously with the ACUP announcement, and in advance of receiving any recommendations from the Advisory Committee, NHTSA published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for a potential side guard regulation. Their cost benefit analysis is based on questionable data and concludes that a side guard regulation would not be cost effective. We are working hard to provide more accurate information in order to correct the CBA in favor of saving lives.

“How can I help?” I thought you’d never ask!

  • Pray for the ACUP members and for this process to produce meaningful outcomes.
  • Only 17 states have an UNDERRIDE FIELD on their state crash report form. This contributes to underreporting of these deaths. By 5:00 p.m. EST on MAY 3, submit a simple, brief Public Comment here. Tell NHTSA you want them to require (not merely suggest) that states have an Underride Field (and which indicates whether it was front, side, or rear) on their crash report form.
  • By June 20, submit a Public Comment on the side guard ANPRM here. Tell them why you think that there should be a side guard regulation (simple reason: To Save Lives).
  • Tens of thousands of underride victims have been a nameless group whose senseless deaths have been swept under the rug for decades despite the ingenuity of engineers to prevent horrific underride. No more. We would like to remember these Precious Ones Gone Too Soon in a special way. We hope to receive permission from the USDOT to install a Commemorative Bell of Hope at their office building in Washington, D.C. We will be organizing a day In Memory of Underride Victims — to ring the bell and call out the names of individuals who lost their lives to underride. We do not know every name, but we will include as many as possible. If you would like to contribute to the purchase of this bell or participate in this event, please let me know by writing to me at marianne@annaleahmary.com.
Side Guard Crash Test in Raleigh, September 2022
To remember how AnnaLeah & Mary lived — full of love & laughter — not merely how they died.

What Do Baseball & Truck Underride Have In Common?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , ,

Now, I’m only a Cubs fan by marriage. Early on in that marriage, I learned what a die-hard fan is and joined the club. But I’m not as familiar with historical details as my husband. Like, what’s with the 1969 Cubs?

However, I have become acquainted with truck underride history and know that, in 1969, our U.S. Department of Transportation was working on rear underride guard rulemaking — though it never became law until 1996 — and said that they intended to add side underride protection on trucks. Never happened.

After losing AnnaLeah and Mary in 2013 due to rear underride, I was, of course, very interested in the updated rear underride guard rule in July 2022. In fact, I was quite disturbed to learn that NHTSA blew an opportunity to require a level of underride protection proven possible by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and nine trailer manufacturers, who were given the TOUGHGUARD award — further evidenced as technically feasible by the survivor of a 2017 rear end truck crash.

Imagine my further consternation when I learned that at least part of the basis for that July 2022 Rear Impact Guard Rule was a NHTSA “engineering judgement concern” for “potential rotation outboard.” What that means is that if the rear guard were stronger at the outer edges of the tractor trailer, that is strong enough to prevent underride, then the car upon collision might rotate or spin out into traffic and collide with another vehicle causing a secondary collision — what the industry dubs “unintended consequences.”

Rear Retrofit Crash Test

Ha! The reality is that a secondary crash such as that would be so much more likely to allow the crashworthiness features (crumple zone, airbags, seat belt tensioners) of the involved vehicles to protect the occupants as intended. Was that really their rationale? Allow people to die under a trailer so that some other fender bender, i.e., non life threatening crash, wouldn’t occur?

I asked an engineer at a university to weigh in on this concern during a February 24, 2023, Friday brown bag lunch TEAM Underride Zoom discussion. Here are the rather garbled notes I jotted down: . . . fear that it would go out into the traffic; misplaced fear; projecting less inertia as it is deflected out from hitting truck — missing the fact that there is no catching equipment on a trailer — energy absorption — the trailer does not catch the car. If it collides at the rear corner, With or without guard it will rotate. The reason rotation takes place. . . because it is the 30% offset. Unintended Consequences.

I asked him to write up his thoughts for me to share and Jared Bryson, Smart Road Operations and Mechanical Systems Innovation Director at Virginia Tech, graciously and creatively obliged.

Baseball & Underride

I’d say that well-thought out explanation should be taken into consideration during a careful review of the July 15, 2022 rear underride guard rule and the questionable (my words) NHTSA decision to decline from requiring life-preserving underride protection at the outer edges of the guard. It’s guaranteed to mean the difference between life & death for more than one person in the days ahead.

Why are we working so hard to get weak rear underride guards replaced?

FARS Coding of a Sample of Rear Underride Crashes

LPD+ Saves Lives; But what’s an LPD+?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , ,

Words have power. Words convey meaning. Let’s choose words which will enhance understanding and catalyze life preserving action.

Take the word #underride for example. How many people realize that an underride guard is a “simple” engineering device which — if properly designed and installed — can prevent a passenger vehicle, as well as pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists, from ending up under a truck in the event of a collision?

For over a century now, despite industry and government awareness of the problem, underride tragedies have been allowed, for the most part, to go unchecked. Amazingly, a 1915 patent for a safety device to prevent side underride predates the first patent for a traffic signal filed in 1922:

“Safety Device for Motor Vehicle” to prevent side underride, 1915 Patent

Unfortunately, there has been too much confusion about the gaping space below a truck’s floor which leads to horrifying injuries when there are collisions with the front, side, or rear of a large truck — not to mention too little action taken to correct that dangerous design. One misunderstanding that I’d like to clear up relates to side underride.

Lateral Protection Device (LPD) is a term coined for equipment installed on the side of a truck to prevent Vulnerable Road Users (pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists) from being swept under. It is not designed to stop a passenger vehicle from going under. A Side Skirt is a relatively flimsy device, which is designed to improve aerodynamics and save fuel; it is not designed to prevent underride. A Side Underride Guard (SUG) or Side Impact Guard (SIG), on the other hand, is designed to prevent a passenger vehicle from going under a truck. Thankfully, it will also protect Vulnerable Road Users from being killed under a truck. And, by the way, it adds to the fuel savings of side skirts.

That is why a SUG or SIG can rightfully be called a LPD+; it does what an LPD is meant to do — and so much more. Why on earth would we require or install equipment on the U.S. fleet which is less effective than a LPD+ that is designed to protect All Road Users? *

Unbelievably, all we have at present is a patchwork quilt of underride standards, or lack thereof, in this country. It’s high time that our nation’s highway traffic safety agency step up to the plate. @NHTSAgov, make wise and timely use of the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection to provide guidance which appropriately defines and regulates underride devices — thus fulfilling your mission to reduce emissions and save lives. Otherwise, we can expect more of the same: Death By Underride day after day, year after year.

Underride Guards Save Lives

* The term LPD+ was suggested by Garrett Mattos on December 2, 2022, during a Zoom discussion among underride experts and advocates collaborating together as TEAM Underride to advance the implementation of engineering devices to prevent Death By Underride for All Road Users.

NHTSA Failing To Educate Stakeholders On Underride

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , ,

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that their mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards, and enforcement. They seem to do a decent job of informing the public with a webpage on driver assistance technologies. However, the NHTSA Truck Underride Page only contains a very short list of studies. This is the extent of entries on that page:

For a century-old problem, there is actually a wealth of research, reports, and recommendations available. As a national traffic safety leader, NHTSA could be a source of all things underride. In fact, by posting a broader set of underride specific information, NHTSA could make use of their website to better inform and inspire all stakeholders at the same time without fear of unfairly communicating with one stakeholder. This would fulfill the first purpose of the Administrative Procedures Act which “requires agencies to keep the public informed and up-to-date on agency activities.”

On September 2, “TEAM Underride” met via Zoom to discuss how we could aid NHTSA in that mission by making recommendations for additions to the NHTSA Truck Underride Page. In an attempt to be helpful, TEAM Underride participants briefly brainstormed ideas for what we thought would be useful to add to the NHTSA Truck Underride webpage, including:

That would be a good start. And we’re more than willing to help in whatever way we can to get this resource development underway.

Side Guard Cost Benefit Analysis Presentation

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

A detailed cost benefit analysis of truck side guards was presented on August 26 at a TEAM Underride Zoom meeting. Eric Hein, father of 2015 side underride victim Riley Hein, originally completed this report in May 2021 and submitted it to NHTSA. In May 2022, he updated the analysis and report and again submitted it to NHTSA for consideration. See it here:

A cost-benefit analysis provides estimates of the anticipated benefits that are expected to accrue over a specified period and compares them to the anticipated costs. USDOT guidance ensures that the economic costs and benefits of road safety measures can be monetized and compared, leading to informed decision making. Delve into this cost benefit analysis to see how Eric arrives at these conclusions:

  • Over 15 years of phasing in, SUGs on new semi-trailers would save at least 3,560 lives and prevent 35,598 serious injuries.
  • An SUG with an aerodynamic skirt would offset their entire cost in the first year.
  • A SUG regulation is cost effective because the benefits of side underride guards substantially outweigh the costs.

Then answer the question: Should Secretary Buttigieg be able to determine that a side guard regulation would be cost-effective and therefore is “warranted”?

Unguarded and Unsafe: Death by Underride

Hein V. Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company: Jury Sends a Message to Trailer Manufacturers About Side Underride

Update on Underride Protection Progress

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , ,

In July 2022, eight years after our original petition was delivered to the Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), whose mission it is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards, and enforcement, took the following actions related to underride protection:

In this crash test video, the top test shows what IIHS has proven possible, the bottom test shows what the 2022 rule will require:

By refusing to revise the December 2015 NPRM to the TOUGHGuard proven level of strength, NHTSA has demonstrated an unwillingness to require that all manufacturers install these stronger guards as Standard on new trailers. To state the obvious, the result is that manufacturers may continue to offer these guards as an Option, thereby allowing the ongoing production of trailers — into the future — with guards having a known unreasonable risk of Death By Underride. How do they sleep at night knowing that their meaningless rhetoric and regulatory malpractice means many more innocent people will needlessly die?

This is nothing less than a reckless disregard for human life.

Why are we working so hard to get weak rear underride guards replaced?

Launching a Campaign To Flood NHTSA With Underride Complaint Reports

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

Safety defect investigations are based upon complaints. That’s why we’re calling on people to help us submit UNDERRIDE Safety Problem Reports to NHTSA.

In response to our Petition for Investigation of Trailers Without Side Guards submitted to the US DOT on September 14, 2021, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in Washington, DC, indicated that they had only received three complaints — besides our petition — about the safety hazard posed by tractor-trailers without side guards. They subsequently denied our petition on June 22, 2022.

Of course, we know that there have been many more than three side underride deaths and serious injuries. However, we are making plans to make sure that the ODI knows this as well and are launching a campaign for submission of underride complaints of all kinds to NHTSA — side, rear, front, tractor-trailer, Single Unit Trucks, and those involving not only passenger vehicle occupants but also pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

We are asking that people send us crash reports for collisions with trucks which they suspect involved underride. Send them to marianne@annaleahmary.com. We will submit these as complaints to ODI.

People who would like to make their own submission can do so by following this procedure:

Instructions for Submitting an Underride Complaint to ODI

Note: Please submit a written complaint even if you are unable to obtain a VIN.

We are thankful for all who have participated, and will participate, in the efforts of Team Underride — for the saving of many lives.

“A Safety Rule, A Fatal Flaw”; Industry Discussed Underride Rules in 2000

Truck Safety, , ,

This week, I discovered a U.S. News & World Report article, published on October 2, 2000, entitled, “A Safety Rule, A Fatal Flaw.” I find it enlightening that the trailer manufacturers conceded twenty-two years ago, “underride guards can save lives.” They further admitted that if they had some guidance on technical specifications from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), then they could add side guards to trailers. But the manufacturers were unwilling to spend money doing so unless they were required to install them.

How many lives could have been saved if the U.S. Department of Transportation had acted decisively at that time and initiated side guard rulemaking? Perhaps more to the point, I’d like to know if Secretary Buttigieg will act boldly now to end these senseless, preventable deaths by determining that a side guard regulation is warranted?

Back of the Envelope Math: How many side underride deaths since March 19, 1969?