Overlooked Vulnerabilities in Truck Crashes: Damage to Steering Mechanism & Fuel Tank

Being a passionate advocate for making truck crashes more survivable, I signed up for Google Alerts on truck crashes. Every night I get an email notifying me of truck crashes across the country. Mostly I look for evidence of underride. But I have noticed the frequency of truck crashes that involve fire. Why is that?

Last fall, I looked further into the problem of front override/underride of trucks over passenger vehicles — either in head-on collisions or when trucks rear-end passenger vehicles. What I found was that many countries have front underride protection standards to improve the outcome in such crashes — including Europe, Australia, India, and Japan.

The front underride/override protection (FUP) protects the passenger vehicle occupants. However, it also protects the truck’s components from damage — including the steering mechanism, which means a truck driver will be more likely to maintain control in a collision. Additionally, underride protection can potentially prevent contact with a fuel tank and thus prevent a fire from starting.

after Truck OVERRODE 3 vehicles

Note the mention of fire and damage to the steering mechanism related to an underride crash in this research study, REVIEW OF TRUCK SAFETY: STAGE 1: FRONTAL, SIDE AND REAR UNDERRUN PROTECTION

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. Front underrun in truck into car crashes where the underrun can:

• rotate the light vehicle downwards and lead to the heavy vehicle running over the light

vehicle with catastrophic results;

• push the petrol tank down and lead to fire when the truck impacts the rear of the light

vehicle (p.4).

Where there was the ability for the truck to overrun the car bumper bar, the effect would be to compromise the cars energy absorption and increase the likelihood of intrusions into the cabin space. A further effect is that the rear of the car is pushed down and so there is an increased likelihood of fuel tank ruptures and of sparks being generated by steel contact with the road surface and hence significant increases in the risk of fire. Hence overrun would be likely to increase the chance of fatalities in these crashes. (p.31)

Watch the rear of the car being pushed down in this side underride crash test:

The protection for the components of the truck are noted in this video of Volvo Front Underrun Protection System crash testing (starting at around 44 sec.):

So, tell me again why there is opposition and lack of action in the U.S. to mandate and install comprehensive underride protection — including Front Underride Protection (FUP). We are at a fork in the road: we can continue to let people die horrific underride deaths OR we can act decisively to mandate and move forward with comprehensive underride protection.