I just noticed that the Department of Energy employees have an Office of Ombudsman. It reminded me that Vulnerable Victims of Vehicle Violence do not have a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to advocate on their behalf.
Monthly Archives: March 2017
Stoughton Trailer owners can buy this new part to help prevent deadly rear underride.
I aim to do my part in advertising this Rear Underride Guard Retrofit Kit from Stoughton Trailers. Owners of a Stoughton Trailer can buy this new part and make their truck better able to prevent deadly rear underride by passenger vehicles.
Why would someone not do this — for $500-600?
By the way, I have also heard that Great Dane will make their new & improved rear underride guard available as a retrofit solution on their trailers.
Please help me get the word out.
Great Dane Trailer Crash Test at IIHS; Receives Toughguard Award For Improved Rear Underride Guard
I have seen quite a few underride guard crash tests in the last two years. It’s not something I ever planned to do and it is never easy. Some of them ended in severe underride and it always shakes me up at how quickly life can change forever. In a matter of seconds.
The crash test I viewed at IIHS on January 19, 2017, was particularly hard to watch. It was a test of Great Dane’s newly designed rear underride guard. A Great Dane trailer was what our Crown Vic collided with on May 4, 2013 — with tragic results.
Demonstration of Improvement in Rear Underride Guard; Great Dane Trailers Crash Test at IIHS, January 19, 2017:
They have proven that creative minds can come up with better underride protection. The cars are damaged from the crash, but underride and Passenger Compartment Intrusion (PCI) are prevented. Lives are preserved.
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 — as announced on March 1, 2017.
Last year, about this time, I posted this: March Historically a Momentous Month for Truck Underride Safety Advocacy; Beware the Ides of March!
Here is an excerpt: It is my fervent hope that, when March 2017 rolls around, we will be celebrating a vastly improved federal standard–enthusiastically and immediately adopted by the trucking industry–for all-around-the-truck underride protection at higher speeds, including now-exempt single unit trucks as well as retrofitted to existing trucks and trailers.
If this seems like a costly venture, try comparing it to the price paid by thousands upon thousands of individuals and families during the past decades of ineffective underride protection–added to the countless precious people who will be saved in the years to come from tragic, preventable death by underride.
We aren’t finished yet, but we have come a long ways!
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.
Stoughton Offers Retrofit Kit For New Rear Impact Guard
I just received an email from Stoughton Trailers’ Product Brand Manager. She has begun advertising their new rear impact guard Retrofit Kit (at about $500-$600) and is already getting inquiries.
http://www.stoughtontrailers.com/parts-sales/news/id/64/retrofit-rear-underride-guard
Think of the lives which could be saved by this! It has brought tears to my eyes.
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 accolade. IIHS recognizes semitrailers with good underride guards
Other articles covering this story:
- Trucks.com article: Insurance Institute Launches New Safety Ranking of Truck Trailers
- Today’s Trucking article on the Stoughton Press Conference: Activist applauds Stoughton for tougher guards
- Trucknews.com: Stoughton improves rear impact guard
- Fleetowner.com: New refrigerated model on the way from Stoughton Trailers
- 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).
2 Moms Collaborate With Innovative & Insightful Truck Industry Leaders
After two full days of attending the ATA’s Technology & Maintenance Council conference in Nashville, I am having a hard time figuring out what to talk about first.
It has been very good to spend that time with Lois Durso, a mom who also lost a daughter to truck (side) underride. We first began talking on the phone a couple of weeks ago and planned to meet at the conference. Having a bond of similar grief, we have talked almost non-stop — both about our daughters as well as strategies for truck safety.
In fact, we were both guests of Stoughton Trailers at the conference and they asked me to share our family’s crash story and the safety advocacy which followed, as well as our appreciation of how Stoughton stepped up and voluntarily improved their rear impact guard and are able to offer it as standard on all new dry van trailers — at no added cost or weight penalty to their customers.
I received a wonderful surprise this morning when I unexpectedly found out that Stoughton now has a rear impact guard (RIG) retrofit kit available for purchase to install as a replacement on all existing (compatible) Stoughton trailers, as far back as 2007. I talked with the Products manager and she roughly estimated the cost to trailer owners to be around $500-600.
I am not indicating that Stoughton’s new RIG is necessarily better than any of the other manufacturers who have also stepped up to the plate and designed rear guards to receive the Toughguard award. But I am commending them for making the safety of the driving public a priority. In fact, I do not have specific crash test information to rate one new design compared to the others. At the end of the day, Jerry and I are thankful to the many persons and companies which have helped to bring about this progress in underride protection.
We will continue to advocate for the strongest possible underride protection on all trucks. That, of course, includes side underride protection, which Lois and I discussed with many industry leaders this week. It also means that Single Unit Trucks still need to be addressed, along with front override, retrofitting, maintenance, and identifying the outer limits of underride protection.
We are not done yet. They haven’t seen the last of us. We’ve got more lives to save.
Stay tuned for news from IIHS on trailer manufacturer underride protection awards.
Update: IIHS announcement at 10 a.m. on March 1; Trucks.com article: Insurance Institute Launches New Safety Ranking of Truck Trailers
Other articles covering this story:
- Trucks.com article: Insurance Institute Launches New Safety Ranking of Truck Trailers
- Today’s Trucking article on the Stoughton Press Conference: Activist applauds Stoughton for tougher guards
- Trucknews.com: Stoughton improves rear impact guard
- Fleetowner.com: New refrigerated model on the way from Stoughton Trailers
- 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).
Here is a Youtube video, of IIHS crash testing research, which shows improvement in the rear underride guards of major trailer manufacturers.
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.
