The challenge mentioned here is for car companies to address the need for occupant protection on the passenger side as well as the driver side in frontal crashes. Duh!
As a mom of nine — although they are now grown — it seems commonsense to me to provide occupant protection throughout the entire vehicle! Including protection for passengers from seatback failures.
I am thankful for the valuable work which the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does to advance vehicle safety through their crash test ratings. That includes large trucks.
I hope to see a 5-star crash rating system for the underride protection system on large trucks soon. It could mean the difference between life and death for someone.
“Economics Will Push Adoption of Self-Driving, Electric Trucks”
Look for semi-trucks to become more intelligent and electric.
That’s the assessment of Morgan Stanley Research analyst Ravi Shanker.
While there are hurdles, Shanker argues in a recent report to investors that powerful economic and regulatory forces will push the trucking industry toward electric, self-driving trucks.
Look for autonomous trucks to be introduced in 2020, “around the time we expect to see the launch of electric semis, right as the new fuel economy and emissions regulations for commercial trucks gather steam,” Shanker said.
Established truck manufacturers and start-ups are already moving in that direction. . .
I am thankful for the progress which has been made in traffic safety and underride protection. And I am asking you all to hang in there with us and keep pushing for more.
How would Mary have celebrated her 17th birthday today? Well, I don’t know for sure. But I know that she would have enjoyed making her own homemade pizza with us tonight. (Or would she have chosen something else for her birthday meal?)
I know that she would have been glued to the TV or her computer watching the Olympics. She loved watching the 2012 Summer Olympics!
Whatever she would have chosen to do on her special day, Mary would have made the most of it because “every day’s a holiday with Mary” and she knew how to live joyfully — when she wasn’t grumpy, that is.
I just discovered that the photos below were ones that Mary took on August 6, 2012 — the day she became a teenager and the last birthday she would ever celebrate:
I also just noticed from these photos from her camera that Mary gave her beloved Gertie a bath on her 13th birthday (the beloved stuffed toy given to her by AnnaLeah so many birthdays before).
Notice the photos Mary took that same day of some of her favorite books (probably her birthday presents from AnnaLeah, whom I can’t ask to be sure) — including an American Girl one about a gymnast!
And I most definitely would not have launched a new petition on Mary’s birthday to ask NHTSA to mandate SIDE GUARDS on trucks so people wouldn’t die from going underneath the sides of trucks:
Good news for those of us who travel on the roads. . . There will soon be a safety product on the market: a side guard to prevent passenger vehicles — as well as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders — from riding under the sides of large trucks upon collision.
Airflow Deflector already supplies a line of truck side guards — aimed mainly at pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcycle riders — and has been installing them on city-owned trucks in Boston and New York, two cities committed to Vision Zero.
As a result of opportunities to network with others at the May 5 Underride Roundtable, Robert Martineau has teamed up with Perry Ponder of Seven Hills Engineering to manufacture and market his side guard invention, Angel Wing. Robert recently shared this good news with me:
“We are excited to launch this product which will be ready for market by the early fall. We will be communicating with different people as to get it tested, certified and tried on trucks as part of a fleet valuation. Still some details to work out but we are now in production.
“We believe this is a very good start and will fit the business model that the transportation industry knows and understands as it does address the issues that face the transportation market both from an economization of fuel and underride safety.“
Another side guard designer, Aaron Kiefer, continues to develop his invention with the goal of making it a viable alternative for protecting people from the deadly side underride which he sees in his work as a crash reconstructionist. His guard actually attaches to the rear guard on trucks thereby strengthening the underride protection for collisions at the back of the truck as well as providing protection on the sides.
Given the vast number of trucks without side guards and the potential for horrific underride deaths and injuries just waiting to happen, I am encouraged to see this progress and look forward to more of the same.
Now what we need is a federal mandate for side underride protection on all large trucks. (Stay tuned for an online petition for Side Guards.)
August 7, 2016 UPDATE We just launched an online petition at Care2 petition site calliing on NHTSA to Mandate Side Guards On Large Trucks To End Deadly Side Underride Crashes.
Yes, parking for trucks is a problem that needs to be addressed. And I am recommending that it be included in the agenda at a Tired Trucker Roundtable.
Take a look at this Forbes article to find out about a safety tip which could benefit you. Thanks for sharing it, Lou.
Having just read it, my first reaction is, “If I were the Traffic Safety Ombudsman, I would raise awareness about this FREE safety technique which, if replaced with an electronic device, could cost you $1,000. I would push to get this information in driver’s manuals, driver education classes, and as part of written exams for driver’s licenses.”
Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
A good article on how people can avoid blind spot accidents has been published by Forbes.
This is a Mirror Adjustment technique that I have used for decades and have taught my children and grandchildren. See
Even though our efforts to improve underride protection are far from being finished, I would like to also tackle the project of organizing a Tired Trucker Roundtable. The only problem is that I have not yet identified any sponsoring organizations or potential facilities for holding such an important event.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Truck Safety Coalition were the co-sponsors with AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety of the Underride Roundtable on May 5, 2016. However, at this time, they are not in a position to participate in a similar fashion with a Tired Trucker Roundtable.
Exactly what am I envisioning with this Tired Trucker Roundtable? Let me try to summarize the highlights:
Over and over, truck crash tragedies occur which seem to involve tired truckers.
Of course, it is harder to measure driver fatigue than DUI — after the fact.
Some of the solutions to this problem have included logging driver hours in paper log books (too often unreliable and, in our crash, never seen by us or our attorney or DA) and more recently rulemaking (currently in a lawsuit) has been issued to require electronic log books.
These log books are to be connected to the official Hours of Service (HOS) requirements for truck drivers regulated by DOT’s Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
There has, of course, been ongoing debate about what is appropriate for the details of these HOS. A virtual and ongoing political tug-of-war which leaves the truck drivers in a confusing muddle and truck crash victims in the grave.
I have read comments from and had “discussions with” many truck drivers who are convinced that these HOS rules need to have the input of truck drivers who are experienced with what works for them.
Of course, the problem that should probably involve other players than DOT agencies — like the Department of Labor and the Department of Health & Human Services (CDC/Public Health) — is that it is to a great extent a problem of how truck drivers are normally compensated (by the mile) and their great difficulty in making a living wage without a great toll on their health.
And it must definitely include various sectors of the trucking industry–carriers, shippers, brokers, independent owner-operators.
Government regulators.
Sleep apnea may also be a factor for many.
In general, their occupation involves long hours of monotonous driving which can lead to not just falling asleep but microsleep which can be as bad or worse than driving DUI.
Trucks take longer to brake but are traveling along with the rest of the traffic — posing a hazard to us all, especially when you add in the factor of the geometric mismatch (not merely a weight difference) of the height of the crush zone of the front of passenger vehicles vs the height of the lower edge of trucks. Underride protection (even what is currently legislated) is too weak and ineffective.
And really, driver fatigue is not just a trucker problem — now is it?
Fatigue, of course, is not the only problem; distracted behavior needs to be discussed as well, and other factors of what might make a truck driver inattentive and not ready to react in a timely manner to avoid tragedies.
Let’s not forget the road system and things like electronic signs to alert drivers of upcoming traffic back-ups or law enforcement actions to divert traffic or teaching drivers how to respond, etc.
And, of course, safety technology — to alert drivers when they are in microsleep or crash avoidance systems (but still, then the driver has to react to the surrounding circumstances) and DON’T FORGET underride protection, parking for truck drivers who do need to take breaks but so they don’t create hazards in their parking location, conspicuity, side mirrors.
Lack of truck parking options causes a big problem.
I’m sure that I have forgotten something; but I hope that you get the idea!
Now all I need is for some others (in addition to truck drivers) to catch the vision and help me out with planning this thing — finding sponsors, a facility, speakers, resources, etc.
Let’s collaborate together. Let’s make it happen. Let’s be amazed at the results.
