People Care About the STOP Underrides! Bill For a Good Reason
* DOT FARS (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) data is known to yield vastly underreported deaths.
IIHS 1992 Status Report: Underride Death Count Too Low
** 1997 study said that the deaths attributed to underride as reported by the FARS are 4% of total truck crash fatalities. Other studies suggest that 27-50% would be more accurate. Incidence of Large Truck-Passenger Vehicle Underride Crashes in Fatal Accident Reporting System and National Accident Sampling System
# Underride Deaths in 1994-2015* (FARS data) = 4,201
Take those 4,201 deaths which represent 4% of the total truck crash deaths reported by FARS to be due to underride. Convert it to a more realistic estimate of 27% of truck crash deaths which are likely due to underride. That would be 28,362 people who died between 1994 and 2015 due to preventable truck underride.
Imagine!
Now let’s take that one step further. Multiply those 28,362 underride deaths by $9.6 million — the DOT Value of a Statistical Life. That equals $272,275,200,000!
That value represents our loved ones and members of our communities who lost their lives abruptly and violently due to underride. (And that isn’t even taking into account the thousands upon thousands who were injured due to Passenger Compartment Intrusion.)
The cost of implementing the STOP Underrides! Bill will not even come close to reaching such a costly price as that which has already been paid.
