We are petitioning the U.S. Department of Transportation to take specific immediate action towards the goal of ending traffic deaths by including Single Unit Trucks (SUTS) and vulnerable road users in the scope of mandated and studied comprehensive underride protection, as called for in the STOP Underrides Bill. SUTs outnumber tractor-trailers and, in fact, comprehensive underride protection on them has already been recommended by the NTSB and the IIHS. Yet SUTs are not included in the Underride Sections of the recently passed Senate and House Infrastructure legislation.
Therefore, we are asking that you expedite work on the 2014 Karth Family petition for underride protection on Single Unit Trucks by taking the following actions:
Establish the Advisory Committee On Underride Protection, as called for in the STOP Underrides Bill and the Infrastructure Legislation in both the House and Senate.
Proceed immediately to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) for comprehensive underride protection on Single Unit Trucks – front, side, and rear.
Add language explicitly stating that all mandated and studied comprehensive underride guards are to protect all road users, including Vulnerable Road Users (pedestrians, cyclists, & motorcyclists).
Respectfully submitted,
Marianne & Jerry Karth AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety
Petition for Underride Rulemaking on Single Unit Trucks (sign here)
Despite this senseless loss of life, safety advocates struggle to catalyze significant change. Efforts to save lives are restricted by the ongoing political tug-of-war over infrastructure legislation. Is it time for a new comprehensiveNational Traffic Safety Act to pass as a stand-alone bill?
Let’s not get stuck in same old/same old strategies. Think outside of the box and come together collaboratively to bring about sweeping changes. Victims of traffic tragedies — gone in the blink of an eye — never come back. Protect the people.
Will Congress finally, after 52 years, take bold, decisive legislative action to mandate strong comprehensive underride protection? Or will they leave it to DOT to determine if side underride protection is “warranted” before issuing a mandate?
How many more people — like a woman in a Greenwich crash on July 3, 2021 — will needlessly die due to a dangerous truck design for which engineers have developed solutions?
Fatal truck crash in Greenwich on July 3, 2021 (photo provided by passerby)
Will trucks on our roads continue to be Unguarded: Death by Underride? Or will Congress boldly send the message through inclusion of strong underride provisions in the Infrastructure Bill to Fix the Problem NOW!?
Looking for an explanation of the truck underride problem and solutions? Look no further. Eric Hein, the father of side underride victim Riley Hein, has put together a detailed tool for learning more about underride and what can be done about it:
People die every day from side underride crashes An “underride” is a collision between an automobile and a truck or semitrailer, and due to the height differential between the passenger vehicle and the frame of the semitrailer, the vehicle goes partially or completely under the side of the semitrailer. During a collision (see unguarded and guarded crash test here), the passenger vehicle impacts the side of the semitrailer with parts of the vehicle not designed to absorb crash forces, namely the windshield and those areas above the hood. This type of collision causes deaths and severe injuries – death by decapitation, crushing, or explosion commonly result. These catastrophic collisions would otherwise be survivable, but side underride guards on trucks and semitrailers are lacking.
Sadly, the recognized hazard of side underride collisions with towed trailers can be traced back to at least 1935 when Robinson patented an invention for a peripheral guard on a hitch-mounted trailer.
The technology is feasible and available. The trucking industry has lobbied against underride guards since 1971 and continues to inaccurately claim that side underride guards are infeasible. Contrary to industry, side underride guards ARE available – they are widely used in Europe, and have been tested and installed in the USA such as the AngelWing and Fortier in Canada.
Underride Guards Are Aerodynamic and Save Fuel Cost.Wabash engineered a combination side impact guard and skirt that passed tests for a 90-degree centerline vehicle impact at 35 miles per hour, and uses a braided cable and is 40 to 50 percent lighter than other designs. With an aerodynamic skirt installed on the underride guard, about 704 gallons ($2,153 using $3.06/gallon) of diesel fuel would be saved annually (8,448 gallons or $25,836 over the 12-year life of a semitrailer) and would completely offset the guard’s cost.
Underride Guards Safeguard Truck Drivers. Side guards on semitrailers change the outcome of collisions to fender benders and reduce the risk of death for people in passenger vehicles, which shield truck drivers from the prospect of jail time or losing their jobs.
I was so pleased to discover the Section on Global Harmonization in the Surface Transportation Investment Act introduced by the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday. I reached out to Secretary Buttigieg and let him know that we are counting on him to proactively take steps to advance traffic safety worldwide, as is clearly the intent of Congress.
SEC. 4211. GLOBAL HARMONIZATION. The Secretary shall cooperate, to the maximum extent practicable, with foreign governments, nongovernmental stakeholder groups, the motor vehicle industry, and consumer groups with respect to global harmonization of vehicle regulations as a means for improving motor vehicle safety.
Underride protection technology, by itself, provides a straightforward example of a practical means to pursue this kind of collaboration which can put us on a fast track to attain zero road deaths and catastrophic injuries due to preventable truck underride. Already we have brought together an international group of engineers to discuss and endorse comprehensive underride protection which could be implemented/mandated in the U.S., including:
In addition to the benefit to U.S. Road Users, the rear standard could help to strengthen standards globally, as would the side guard standard. Additionally, by following the lead in other countries, the U.S. could apply underride standards to Single Unit Trucks as well as tractor-trailers.
We are urging Secretary Buttigieg:Act now, in this one area, by establishing the Advisory Committee On Underride Protection — and include international participants. Move ahead immediately with Global Harmonization of Motor Vehicle Safety Standards.
GOOD NEWS: The Senate Commerce Committee just released the text of their Infrastructure Bill today.
It has an Underride Section which is very similar to the House T&I Committee’s Bill — not the full STOP Underrides Bill because it leaves out Front Underride Protection and Single Unit Trucks and doesn’t mandate side guards, only says to do research and develop a standard, if warranted.
But it is definitely more than we’ve ever had and we’re hoping that DOT is already motivated to take action. However, if you have been following the Infrastructure Bill in the news, nobody knows how it is going to be paid for — and that could hold things up!
I was very pleased with the collaborative discussion which took place via Zoom on Monday, March 29, 2021, regarding the challenges of adding side guard safety technology to specialty trucks. Participants included primarily engineers and small companies who have been working on researching, designing, and/or marketing solutions to the underride problem. The meeting was also quietly observed by families of underride victims and administrative officials from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
Here is a summary of the discussion regarding the challenges of installing side guards on a variety of large trucks:
I have heard comments, in the past, that individuals and companies, which are designing, testing, and marketing innovative underride protection technology, are just in it to make money — as if they shouldn’t be trusted. I have found this to be far from the truth. I have observed selfless commitment to staying the course for the long haul to bring about solutions to a deadly problem which has been swept under the rug for far too long — with little hope, along the way, that there would be either a mandate or widespread voluntary adoption. Despite the decades of uncertainty, these resourceful people have held fast to this impossible dream.
The friendly and informative discussion among what-might-be-considered competitors was productive and appreciated. I hope that this meeting’s cooperative interaction to reach a shared goal is a foretaste of good things to come.
What is it like to compete for the attention of government leaders in order to get traction on the traffic safety problem which took your loved one’s life? Envision a press conference on a hot topic where a cacophony of reporters can be heard shouting out — vying for the opportunity to have their question be the one that gets answered.
Only it is much worse because it seems fundamentally disturbing that we should be pitted against each other in endless competition for action on issues which are all vital to saving lives. In this process, we are fragmented and quite possibly give more power to the opposing forces.
Something’s wrong with this picture. And what I think that we need to turn things around is an Office of National Traffic Safety Ombudsman. Let’s appoint an Advocate with authority to be a strong voice for all of us and a means to bring us together – someone who will strengthen our efforts rather than leave us struggling in some kind of tournament where it is always win or go home.
Congressional Offices are continuously overwhelmed by pleas from advocates representing a multitude of concerns. And, although the Department of Transportation may have many fine individuals working on our behalf, there are clearly too many factors which put a stranglehold on effective action. I have not found that I could count on tangible progress from the agencies which are supposed to represent Safety and traffic victims and which have publicly committed to Vision Zero:
“At FHWA, we believe that a single death is a tragedy; almost 90 deaths a day is unacceptable when we possess the tools and capability to help prevent them. Reaching zero deaths will be difficult, will take time and will require significant effort from all of us; but it is the only acceptable vision. We’re not at zero yet, but we know that by working together we will see a day when there are no fatalities on the Nation’s roadways, sidewalks and bicycle paths.” On TOWARD ZERO DEATHS
“Safety is the top priority of the US DOT. For FHWA, this means a road system that is designed to protect its users, through implementing life-saving programs and infrastructure safety solutions. FHWA’s goal is to reduce transportation related fatalities and serious injuries across the transportation system, and for this reason it fully supports the vision of zero deaths and serious injuries on the Nation’s roads. To support this vision, FHWA continues to work closely with our partners to advance safety culture and a safe system approach, encourage performance-driven transportation safety management practices, and advocate for the deployment of innovative safety countermeasures. Working together, we can strive toward zero, the only acceptable number. “Zero Deaths – Saving Lives through a Safety Culture and a Safe System
Words without meaningful action do me no good. What is going to bring about significant change? Can we even agree on the need for a united front, an appointed spokesperson, and a nationwide network of concerned citizens to more effectively address all traffic safety concerns?
If we do not, my daughters’ deaths become diminished – their lives apparently not worth saving, along with 40,000 other precious loved ones lost last year and the year before that and the year before that and some 40,000 this year and the next and the next. . .
Almost five years ago, after delivering a Vision Zero Petition to leaders in Washington, D.C., I realized that we need something more than a White House Vision Zero Task Force and a National Vision Zero Goal. We need a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to be at the helm of a nationwide network of community traffic safety advocates. Someone who will have a place at the federal table — with the authority to take ongoing action on behalf of vulnerable victims of vehicle violence.
Observing too little progress after countless hours of underride advocacy in the last 7+ years, and 18,998 days of waiting for DOT to make good on their 1969 commitment to add underride protection to the sides of large vehicles, I know for a fact that we need a vigilant voice in D.C. So I organized a meeting to discuss it last Friday, March 19, 2021.
This is the presentation which I shared to outline just why I think this executive action is so important:
I have again requested that NHTSA and NTSB address the side underride factor in their investigation of yet another Tesla side underride crash.
The U.S. auto safety agency said on Monday it is investigating a crash in Detroit on Thursday involving a Tesla that became wedged underneath a tractor-trailer and left a passenger in critical condition. U.S. safety agency probes ‘violent’ Tesla crash in Detroit
After the investigation of Joshua Brown’s widely-publicized side underride death in May 2016, I asked NHTSA to provide me with their Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) report on his crash. What I discovered was that his crash was coded as “No Underride or Override Noted.” Joshua Brown/Tesla Side Underride Crash Coded as “No Underride” in FARS Data
It has been confirmed by the GAO that underride deaths are undercounted. We all know that ghastly underride deaths happen way too often. Will we seriously allow the lack of an accurate count to stop us from using proven engineering solutions to make sure that there are no more senseless Deaths By Underride?!
