Tag Archives: trailer manufacturers

Utility Trailers Encourages Retrofit of Rear Impact Guards To Prevent Underride

Last evening, I received some amazing news! Utility Trailer Manufacturing has announced that their improved Rear Impact Guard (RIG) will be offered at a discount.

Utility “is pleased to announce its dry vans, refrigerated vans and flatbeds produced after 2002 can be retrofitted with Utility’s standard 7” deep horizontal Interstate Commerce Commission (I.C.C.) bumper. . .

Utility strongly recommends their 7” deep horizontal bumper for horizontal bumper replacement on new or older Utility trailer models that were built after 2002 in order to exceed all rear trailer guard safety regulations. Utility will discount the new bumpers as an incentive to replace the old bumpers with the new upgraded 7” deep bumper. . .

“. . .is also I.I.H.S. certified and TUFF Guard awarded. TUFF Guard awards trailers with guards that prevent underride in all three of the institute’s rear underride tests . . . Utility Implements Standard 7’’ Rear Impact Guard on All Trailer Models

We are hopeful that this bold move will pave the way for all trailer manufacturers to follow suit. These retrofit kits will be available to replace not only damaged RIGs but the RIGs on millions of trailers on the road today which have rear underride guards which are TOO WEAK to stop underride all across the back of the trailer.

Thankfully, there are many RIG retrofit solutions available. This is what I know:

This just goes to show you that, by working together, we can STOP underrides. I’m hoping that 2021 will bring significant progress in underride protection!

Retrofit Solutions for Rear Impact Guards to Prevent Deadly Underride

It is to their credit that nine U.S. trailer manufacturers have improved their rear underride guard design to meet the IIHS TOUGHGuard standard and seven of them are putting it on all new trailers as Standard. What that means is that they have surpassed the current federal standard and have been crash tested to show that they are more likely to prevent underride and catastrophic Passenger Compartment Intrusion (PCI) — thereby more likely to save lives when passenger vehicles rear end tractor-trailers.

See the difference between a too weak and a stronger guard:

Read more here: Recognizing good rear underride protection

Unfortunately, that does not help underride victims who crash into older models with too weak rear underride guards. Until the entire fleet has this stronger protection, people will continue to die from an engineering problem that has already been solved.

Underride Crash Memorials (the tip of the iceberg)

Thankfully, there are retrofit solutions available. This is what I know:

Note: When I called a local truck part company, the person with whom I talked knew nothing about improved rear guard retrofit parts. They were still selling the old model of generic horizontal bumper tubes. In other words, despite the availability of improved guards, many trucking companies are replacing damaged guards with the old model which can’t stop a car in an offset crash.

Is it time for a Congressional Underride Hearing?

STOP Underrides UPDATE: September 2019

  1. Jury Verdict $42 million in Riley Hein Side Underride Case: Found the Trailer Manufacturer NegligentThe jury found that Utility Trailer was negligent and that its negligence caused Riley Hein’s death.  They determined the total damages to Riley’s estate and his parents was $42 million. However, the jury found that Utility Trailer was 45% at fault, while the truck driver was 55% at fault, so the total verdict against UTM is $18.9 million.
  2. Joint Defense Agreement of the Truck Trailer Manufacturers Association — collaborating to defend themselves from lawsuits when people die under trucks — perfectly legal.
  3. Great Dane Trailers 2016 Side Underride Case. Incriminating signs of industry lobbying efforts to prevent regulations which would have saved lives.
  4. Meanwhile, what could the manufacturers have been doing instead of defending themselves for the last 50 years? (1969 DOT intention of adding a side guard regulation, 1970 DOT expectation that side guards would be developed, & 2019 Vanguard Trailers side guard patent application) If they had concentrated on R&D for the best possible underride protection instead of opposing underride regulations, imagine how many people could have been saved!
  5. NHTSA not doing its job and continuing to undercount underride deaths: NHTSA says that the TIFA data is what they used in their regulatory analysis. Yet, FARS data is undercounted and TIFA data is based on FARS data! How does that make any sense?!
  6. Here are 3 examples of errors in specific known underride crashes: #1– Roya’s FARS report says that there was NO underride; #2 — AnnaLeah & Mary’s FARS report shows that only 1 person died from REAR underride in Georgia in 2013 but 2 daughters died under the truck; #3 — In this well-known May 2016 side underride of a Tesla car under a trailer, the FARS report says “NO UNDERRIDE”. Joshua Brown/Tesla side underride FARS Report
  7. September 3, 1969: Congress was discussing the need to pass a law for improved rear, front, and side underride protection on all trucks to permanently remove this deadly problem from American roadways.
  8. Congress, the ball is in your court. What more do you need to know to convince you to take action? Is it time for a Congressional Underride Hearing?

Understanding Underride IV: Side Underride

A panel of experts discuss underride at a Briefing on The Hill, October 12, 2017, to bring greater understanding of the problem and solutions of deadly but preventable truck underride. Robert Lane, VP of Product Engineering at Wabash National — a trailer manufacturer, discusses their commitment to development of underride protective devices for the prevention of underride deaths and debilitating injuries.

For more information on the STOP Underrides! Act of 2017, go to https://annaleahmary.com/ and/or https://stopunderrides.org/

Posts and articles on side underride:

 

 

Heading for DC to Discuss the Need for the Best Possible Underride Protection on All Trucks

This is why we are working so hard to get better underride protection. This is why I am getting up early tomorrow morning to get on Amtrak headed for DC to meet with DOT and the Senate Commerce Committee. Pray for fruitful meetings.

COMPARE THIS: A real-life underride death prevented by a new rear underride guard: New Stoughton Rear Underride Guard Proven Successful In Real Life Crash; Driver Survives

TO THIS: A real-life rear underride tragedy in a crash into an old, weak, and ineffective rear underride guard: Carroll deputy killed in crash

Within a week’s time, 1 driver survived a crash with a trailer, 1 driver did not.

Seems like a no-brainer to me to require that all of the 15.5 million trucks on the road have the best possible underride protection.

Note: How many trucks are on the road?

 2016 Top 25 North American Truck-Trailer & Chassis OEMs

Rank

Manufacturer

2016

2015

Totals:

314,966

337,861

http://trailer-bodybuilders.com/trailer-output/2016-trailer-production-figures-table

Side Guard Petition Book Part 1

Side Guard Petition Book Part 2

Side Guard Petition Book Part 3

Crash Test Videos of Semi Trailers Earning New IIHS Toughguard Award

Here is a Youtube video, posted by Cars-Trucks TV, which demonstrates the effectiveness of the improved rear underride guards designed by five of the major trailer manufacturers — Great Dane, Manac, Stoughton, Vanguard, and Wabash — from 2013 to 2017. They received a Toughguard award from IIHS.
 

They have proven that creative minds can come up with better underride protection. The cars are damaged from the crash, but underride is prevented and lives are preserved.

 

IIHS Presents Toughguard Award to 5 Trailer Manufacturers For Voluntary Upgrade of Rear Underride Guard

On March 1, 2017, IIHS announced a new award, Toughguard, given to trailer manufacturers which have passed the IIHS rear underride guard crash testing:

Five North American semitrailer manufacturers earn the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s new TOUGHGUARD award recognizing rear underride guards that are designed to prevent a range of deadly underride crashes. Semitrailers from Great Dane LLC, Manac Inc., Stoughton Trailers LLC, Vanguard National Trailer Corp. and Wabash National Corp. earn the accoladeIIHS recognizes semitrailers with good underride guards

Other articles covering this story:

  1. Trucks.com article: Insurance Institute Launches New Safety Ranking of Truck Trailers
  2. Today’s Trucking article on the Stoughton Press Conference: Activist applauds Stoughton for tougher guards
  3. Trucknews.comStoughton improves rear impact guard
  4. Fleetowner.com: New refrigerated model on the way from Stoughton Trailers
  5. Truckinginfo.com: Stoughton Underride Guard Earns Kudos from Crash Survivor, Insurance Institute

Thank you, IIHS for your commitment to this crash testing project, which has highlighted the continuing underride problem and guided the way to a solution. Thank you, as well, to the trailer manufacturers who have voluntarily improved the rear underride protection on the trailers which they produce and sell (and/or lease).

Please tell Marianne & Jerry that we believe in them:what they are doing can & WILL shape the industry.

I continue to be thankful and speechless at the response which we have received from G & P Trucking Company:

Please read this facebook post by Michelle Novak, a friend who lost her nephew in a truck crash:

I’VE COPIED THE COMMENTS FROM THE COMPANY POST AND INSERTED THEM IN THE COMMENTS SECTION HERE.

I’m going to share this post by G&P Trucking Company so everyone can see the amazing difference that Marianne Waldron Karth , and her husband Jerry are making at the highest levels in the industry.

They responded to my comment of yesterday, and I want everyone in the TSC, and anyone who supports safer trucking, to read it. It made me cry to know that the heart of the man who runs this company has been touched so deeply by the Karths. This will save lives! People will be prevented from dying–and who knows how many?–by this kind of work the Karths tirelessly do! If you have any money, time or energy to give to the Karths as they crawl on pavement helping assemble under-ride guards that the industry will one day use, please offer it! These two are people who will persevere until they achieve a way to preserve life in memory of their daughters. I admit I’m not made of such stuff. But I do want to help.

If the comments don’t show up under the piece, please do go to their site, read it, leave a comment and sign up for their blog, which will be detailing their brand new safety effort. And do be sure to encourage the Karths as they labor to accomplish things i didn’t think were possible!

Michelle’s comments to her post:

  • Comment from Michelle Novak to the president of G & P Trucking: Mr. Clifton Parker, I’m sending a comment to thank you for your heartfelt and immediate response to a letter you received from a grieving parent who lost two daughters to a preventable under-ride crash. I’ll be following this up with an actual letter to express my gratitude in more detail, but wanted you to know how much what you’re doing means to those of us who have lost loved ones to companies that don’t focus on safety as number one. I have subscribed to your company’s blog and will follow what this company is doing to improve the safety of the industry as a whole.
  • Reply to Michelle from G & P Trucking: Ms. Michelle, thank you for your kind words! Mr. Parker was deeply affected by his conversation with Marianne. You should know, we had a safety meeting today detailing our goals to keep our equipment (and drivers) the safest on the road–and it stemmed from their conversation. In the following days, we will post more information about our plan in the company blog and social media outlets. Please tell Marianne and Jerry that we believe in them–what they are doing can AND WILL shape the industry.

https://www.facebook.com/michellem.novak.7/posts/323388448061445

Please Join Us In Thanking Other Trucking Companies For Their Voluntary Actions To Make Their Trucks Safer To Be Around:

  1. G & P Trucking Company: Online Contact Form
  2. Manac was the first trailer manufacturer to re-design their rear underride guard to protect against underride at the outer edges of the trailer. Online Questions & Comments Form
  3. Vanguard followed. http://vanguardnationalparts.com/
  4. Next came Wabash and JB Hunt who immediately ordered 4,000 new trailers with the improved guards from Wabash. Online Contact Form
  5. Stoughton was the fourth manufacturer to upgrade and was crash tested at the First Underride Roundtable at IIHS on May 5, 2016, three years after our crash. They have made the new guard standard on all new trailers and are offering it at no cost or weight penalty to their customers. Stoughton Contacts

Thank you 3

SAVE THE DATE for the Second Underride Roundtable: Tuesday, August 29, 2017

We will continue to discuss how to bring about

the BEST POSSIBLE UNDERRIDE PROTECTION.

IIHS will once again co-host this event, with the Truck Safety Coalition and AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety, at their Vehicle Research Center.

Trucking co. responds to dad’s plea to only use safe trucks: “Your request is not falling on deaf ears”

Today, I was taken by surprise when I got a phone call from Clifton Parker, President/CEO of G & P Trucking Company. He was responding to the letter which a bereaved dad (Jerry) sent to him — asking him to make sure that the trailers, which his company uses, have the strongest possible rear underride guards.

First of all, Mr. Parker told me how sorry he was about our loss of AnnaLeah and Mary. Then he told me several times how the letter had impacted him and how he wanted us to know that our appeal was not falling on deaf ears.

He then told me in great depth how in the last 24 hours since he received our letter, he had made the decision to send back the trailers which they had been renting from the companies which have not yet voluntarily stepped up and improved their rear underride guards. He had gone out in his yard and looked at the trailers and intends to follow-through and have his company figure out which trailers could be retrofitted to get stronger rear underride guards, including trailers with damaged guards — as well as making sure that new purchases have safer rear underride guards.

Jerry has written letters to trucking companies in the past with good results. Recently, he decided that it was time to contact some more companies. When we were traveling, we started making note of trailers produced by the four major manufacturers, who have not yet voluntarily stepped up to the challenge to offer better rear underride guards–Great Dane, Hyundai, Strick, and Utility. We would also write down the name of the trucking company (on the tractor) which was pulling that trailer and then we wrote them a letter.

Here is the letter which we sent to Clifton Parker earlier this week), Letter to G & P Trucking 2017 ,

including this excerpt:

We have been told that the initial correspondence which we sent, in early 2014, to the major trailer manufacturers, as well as to transport companies like Crete Carrier, has spurred three of the eight major trailer manufacturers—Wabash, Vanguard, and Stoughton—to design a new underride guard which surpasses the present U.S. and Canadian standards. A fourth, Manac, had already improved their guard a short time before our fatal underride crash. . .

We have observed that G & P Trucking is utilizing 1,500 trailers – at least some of them from Utility, who has not yet stepped up to the new de facto standards that are now in existence for the underride guard. This leaves your company in the position of having a liability exposure due to the trailers which you are presently utilizing. We are writing to encourage you to consider replacing your fleet of trailers from one of the four companies, who have voluntarily upgraded their trailers to safer standards.

Along with the letter, we included a hard copy of the IIHS Status Report which reported on our crash and on the weakness which IIHS had found in the current federal regulations for rear underride guards.

I cannot adequately describe to you what it meant to me to have Mr. Parker express his reaction and resulting actions upon reading the letter from our family — and to take the time to call us. He encouraged us to keep doing what we were doing, to keep making the industry safe.

If you would like to do join us in thanking Clifton Parker, you can write him at this address:

Clifton Parker, President
G & P Trucking
126 Access Road
Gaston, South Carolina 29053

18u0ii

And you can help us inform other trucking companies in the same way — because raising awareness seems to be making a big difference. Simply write down the manufacturer name on trailers which you see — like Great Dane, Hyundai, Strick, and Utility — and the name of the trucking company as marked on the tractor. Send that information to us at marianne@annaleahmary.com, or write to them yourself.

Roads Safer

 

Stoughton improved underride guards–standard “at no cost or weight penalty.”

We just received good news from Gary Fenton, VP of Engineering at Stoughton Trailers, with the announcement that their newly-designed rear underride guard is now available, as of November 1, 2016, on all new trailers produced by and purchased from them. Gary’s email to me on December 12, was very encouraging:

“Please find attached a press release and ad sheets associated with the Stoughton move to standardize a new under ride structure, designed to widen the area of impact protection on the rear of Stoughton Trailers.  Stoughton is now standard on this new design for all straight vans (dry and reefer).  The implementation of the design as standard began on Nov. 1, 2016 (pilot run of 100 units built in August).  The inclusion of this new protection feature is standard to the customer at no cost or weight penalty.

Stoughton Rear Underride Guard Brochure August 2016 pdf

Stoughton Trailers Introduces Underride Guard Press Release June 2016

Stoughton Safety Ad for Rear Underride Guard 10/17/16

This is good in more than one way:

  1. First of all, it means that — here on out — all new trailers purchased from Stoughton will be safer.
  2. Secondly, it means that Stoughton has set a new example for the industry in offering it as standard equipment and not merely an option.

Stoughton Trailers is one of four out of the eight major trailer manufacturers, tested recently by IIHS, which have responded to our request for voluntary improvement to their underride protection. The others are Manac (which improved their guard shortly before our crash), Vanguard, and Wabash. One more manufacturer hopes to have their upgrade crash tested early next year.

Thank you, Stoughton, and Gary Fenton, for your hard work and dedication to truly making safety a priority.

A more detailed explanation of the underride dilemma is available here: Underride Guards: Can we “sit down at the table together” and work this out? June 27, 2014

Media Coverage of the first Truck Underride Roundtable held at IIHS on May 5, 2016

Roads Safer