Every evening, I receive an email notification from Google Alert letting me know about recent truck crashes. Cheery, right? Many of them are frontal, head-on crashes between a car and a truck — or crashes when trucks rear-end cars, too. I know from research that Front Underride Protection (FUP) on trucks could reduce the severity of these crashes.
So when I read about one more of those in tonight’s Alert, I decided to do some more searching online about how FUP might help to prevent the fiery crashes which I frequently read about. One thing I found, that I had not read in the past, was a Status Report from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety describing the benefits of FUP to reduce frontal crash severity. It was published on August 26, 1989 — thirty years ago.
Read it for yourself: IIHS Status Report on Front Underride Protection August 26 1989
Now, tell me again why we don’t have FUP on trucks in the United States (though many other countries do). I’m waiting. . .
Front Underride Protection Brochure 6
Posts on Front Underride Protection
The chart below shows that NHTSA has recorded front underride deaths for decades (although it is known to be greatly underreported). Yet, they have done nothing to mandate technology which could prevent these deaths.
Truck Underride Deaths by TYPE 1994-2014
NHTSA FARS data on underride deaths BY STATE, 1994-2015
In 2002, the trucking industry predicted that there would be front underride regulations by 2006 (dubbed frontal aggressivity). Yet, they have done nothing to make sure that their trucks are as safe as possible around the traveling public.
2002 ATA Prediction of Underride Regulations
NTSB Recommended FRONT OVERRIDE PROTECTION In 2010 after Truck OVERRODE 3 vehicles
