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 accolade. IIHS 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.com: Stoughton 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).