On April 17, 2020, over 40 people participated in a virtual meeting of a volunteer Underride Protection Committee’s “Side Guard Task Force.” This included two engineers from trailer manufacturers. As a follow-up, several subcommittees began to hold virtual meetings, including an Underride Engineering Subcommittee.
The engineering subcommittee met at least monthly and sometimes every other week from May through November. At the outset, the VP of Engineering of one of the trailer manufacturers provided valuable input. Subcommittee members also participated in a Virtual Briefing for Senate Commerce Committee transportation staffers on August 19, 2020.
The goal of the Underride Engineering Subcommittee was to create a Consensus Side Guard Standard which would provide additional insight for the development of a side guard regulation and industry standard. Lengthy conversation and exchange of information has led this group to submit the following recommendation:
A side underride guard shall be considered to meet the performance standard if it is able to provide vehicle crash compatibility with a midsize car, to prevent intrusion into the occupant survival space, when it is struck at any location, at any angle, and at any speed up to and including 40 mph.
The subcommittee members are in agreement as to the details shaping this long-overdue standard, which they anticipate will lead to the saving of countless lives in the days and years to come. The following group of individuals participated in the Underride Engineering Subcommittee and are willing to continue to provide input.
NOTE: It should be mentioned that this standard has, in fact, been evaluated through research conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety when they crashed a car at 40 m.p.h. into the side of a tractor-trailer equipped with AngelWings side guards on August 29, 2017, during the Second Underride Roundtable at their Ruckersville, Virginia, testing facility.
There was no underride, no Passenger Compartment Intrusion (PCI), and the crash dummy data showed that it was survivable. In other words, this standard is not pie-in-the-sky; it has been proven that the Consensus Side Guard Standard is attainable.
UPDATE: Protecting Passenger Vehicles from Side Underride with Heavy Trucks More research on side underride was published by SAE International in April 2021 — following a presentation by Garrett Mattos of the Friedman Research Center at a SAE Conference. Hopefully, the Department of Transportation now has enough research to make good on their March 19, 1969 intention to add underride protection to the sides of large vehicles.
