In August 2022, we submitted a petition to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) requesting that they investigate the potential safety defect of tractor trailers which do not have Rear Impact Guards (RIG) with the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety’s TOUGHGuard level of underride protection. In response, on January 20, 2023, we received a “Defect Petition Acknowledgement Letter” and Opening Resume related to investigation DP22-004.
The Opening Resume includes a chart indicating that the ODI had received zero Safety Complaints related to Rear Impact Guards. More specifically, they listed zero for the following categories:
- Complaints
- Crashes/Fires
- Injury Incidents
- Number of Injuries
- Fatality Incidents
- Number of Fatalities.
Having lost two daughters due to a rear underride crash on May 4, 2013, I knew that this was most certainly not an accurate representation of the extent of preventable rear underride tragedies, but rather the failure of the process to identify an unreasonable safety risk without the submission of formal complaints. I took it upon myself to immediately rectify that unfortunate situation.
Based on a daily Google Alert email notification of truck crashes, memorial website posts on annaleahmary.com record crashes which appear to involve underride. Those memorial posts include not only rear underride crashes but side underride and front override, as well. So I made a list of all the posts which appeared to involve underride crashes and deaths at the rear of large trucks.
Then I made a pdf of each memorial post, as well as a pdf of a related media article, which either contained a photo or narrative indicating that it was quite probably a rear underride. I numbered each of the crashes and ended up with 176 which appeared to me to be rear underride crashes. I recently discovered that one of those was a side underride, so I have taken that one out of the set.
I proceeded to print each of the memorial posts and media articles — adding, when I could, obituaries and photos of the underride victim. I put these documents in a binder and mailed it to the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation at the Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. Additionally, upon their request, I provided the ODI with digital copies of each document.
My next step was to begin a search for these crashes in the NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data query tool. The FARS data comes from fatal crash reports written by investigating officers and submitted to State FARS Analysts. We have learned that FARS Analysts are trained to strictly adhere to what they see in the crash report. If the investigating officer marks an underride field checkbox or indicates in the report narrative that underride occurred, then the FARS Analyst can code the crash as Underride.
Unfortunately, at present, only 17 states have an Underride Field on their state crash report forms. In addition, it appears that there is not adequate training for the investigating officers to know how to properly report an underride crash. The result is that these preventable deaths are vastly undercounted. Consequently, underride regulatory analysis by NHTSA, the federal highway safety agency, determines that effective underride regulations are “not cost effective” and available underride protective devices gather dust on the shelf.
The majority of the 175 rear underride memorial posts were for crashes which occurred in 2021 and 2022 and had, therefore, not yet been recorded in FARS. Thus, I was left with 38 crashes which could be searched for with the NHTSA FARS data query tool by a team of families of underride victims. The following table summarizes the results of that search.
Clearly, underride is vastly underreported, as has been previously documented in many reports and studies (Braver, et al, 1997, 1998; Brumbelow; GAO Truck Underride Report; Karth). However, it is not enough to lament about the lack of accurate data. What should we do? For starters. . .
- Improve training of law enforcement on investigating and reporting underride crashes.
- Improve training of FARS Analysts on reporting underride crashes.
- Require states to include an Underride Field on their state (and local) crash report forms.
- Reassess and amend the Rear Impact Guard Rule, published on July 15, 2022, which falls far short in its protection of vulnerable motorists and other road users with proven and available technology.
