These days, when we are traveling on the expressway, our conversations are interspersed with periodic comments like:

“Look at that one! It’s all rusty and bent!”

“Can you believe that one?! It’s all broken off on one side!”

“That one doesn’t even have anything in the middle!”

What are we talking about? Underride guards.

Before May 2013, most of us did not even know what an underride guard was. Now we know that the condition of an underride guard can sometimes mean the difference between life and death.

An underride guard is just what it says it is:  a piece of equipment fashioned into the back of a semi-trailer which can help to guard against a vehicle riding under the truck in the event of a crash—thereby preventing horrific injuries and death.