If you had to guess how many people have died from truck underride, or more specifically from side underride, since DOT talked about side guards on March 19, 1969, what would you say? Well, nobody can say for sure, but I did some Back of the Envelope Math today — using the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) undercounted underride death data.

Here’s what I came up with: Back of the Envelope Math — Estimated Underride Deaths 3/19/69 – 3/19/22

It might not be exact, but it certainly is revealing.