On January 18, 2024, engineers and underride experts gathered via Zoom to expand the Consensus Side Guard Standard, developed by TEAM Underride in 2020, to specifically address the protection of All Road Users — that is, not only the occupants of passenger vehicles but, also, pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and other Vulnerable Road Users. In 2022, the term, Lateral Protection Device PLUS or LPD+, was coined*, and now the goal was to create language for a performance standard which such a device should meet.
We had gotten a good start on this process in December 2023. We continued that invigorating discussion and wordsmithing, and this is what we came up with to define the requirements for a Lateral Protection Device PLUS, or side impact guard, on a Commercial Motor Vehicle:
A side impact guard shall be considered to meet the performance standard if it is able to:
- prevent intrusion into the occupant survival space of a mid-size vehicle when the Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) is struck at any location along its side, at any angle, and at any closing speed up to and including 40 mph, and
- prevent a Vulnerable Road User (VRU) from passing underneath the CMV in an interaction along its side.
It is our hope that this process will ultimately result in collaborative action among diverse stakeholders, including government and industry, to develop a voluntary consensus standard which can guide rulemaking and catalyze timely, widespread adoption of underride protection on the sides of large vehicles as envisioned by the Department of Transportation in 1969. For the saving of many lives.
* The term LPD+ was suggested by Garrett Mattos on December 2, 2022, during a Zoom discussion among underride experts and advocates collaborating together as TEAM Underride to advance the implementation of engineering devices to prevent Death By Underride for All Road Users.
