Lately, I have been thinking more and more about how often fiery truck crashes occur and whether comprehensive underride protection (CUP) could reduce the chance that a fire will occur when there is a collision between a truck and a smaller passenger vehicle. I am convinced that CUP (front, side, rear) could help to make truck crashes more survivable in so many ways — including protecting vulnerable areas under the two vehicles:
- The truck’s steering mechanism so that the truck driver can better stay in control during a collision.
- Gas tanks so that they do not rupture and create conditions for fire to erupt.
See the email below. And consider how the recent April 25, 2019, deadly truck crash in Colorado might have turned out differently. https://q13fox.
I know that people will talk about collision avoidance technologies as a solution. But I think that it needs to be both/and. I have been studying what I can find out about that crash and it seems to me that the truck driver may have been in a situation where he lost the power to brake and CA would not change that. I had that happen to me in about 1987 or so. I was driving a Suburban pulling a camper on the expressway and suddenly realized that I had lost the ability to brake. I finally was able to pull into a gas station and turn the vehicle off and it turned out okay. But it was TERRIFYING. I felt so out of control. Imagine that truck driver.
Marianne
From: Marianne Karth <mariannekarth@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Apr 12, 2019 at 11:13 PM
Subject: Fiery truck crashes and Front Underride/Override Protection
To: Matthew Brumbelow @iihs.org>
Matt,
Have you ever studied fiery truck crashes and the factors which lead to that outcome?
I’ve been thinking about that question a lot because I receive Google Alert Notifications of truck crashes and see so many fiery crashes. It made me think of what I have learned by delving into the topic of front underride/override protection. I know that the FUP not only protects the passenger vehicle, but it also protects the steering mechanism of the truck — enabling the truck driver to stay more in control in a collision. and. . . the fuel tank.
Marianne
p.s. It drives me up a wall that the industry and government just ignore the possibility that head on collisions and rear ending of cars by trucks, etc., could be mitigated. Putting all their eggs into the basket of changing driver behavior and collision avoidance technology. Do we believe in a SAFE SYSTEM approach or don’t we?
Offset front underrun in head on crashes where the light vehicle is likely to collide with the steer axle and compromise the heavy vehicles steering, and/or the underrun leads to heavy intrusion of the cabin space by the heavy vehicle structure.
“But we also get good protection for the components in the lower front part of the coach [where the steering mechanism is]:
See the references to protection from fires by FRONT UNDERRIDE PROTECTION in this eBook: Wheels of Progress?: Motor Transport, Pollution and the Environment
