Category Archives: Truck Safety

“Anyone that thinks they can outlive a crash with a truck, good luck.” Actually, I know it is possible!

Truck Safety, ,
When I checked the STOP Underrides! petition this morning, I saw that we had reached 48,000 U.S. petition signatures. I also saw this comment:
 
“Hello, big truck what do you expect. Anyone that thinks they can outlive a crash with a truck, good luck.”
 

Actually, I outlived a crash with two big trucks. My daughters did not. The difference? The truck came into their part of the car — not mine. It’s called Passenger Compartment Intrusion (PCI). And that is what Underride Protection can prevent. To save lives.

Note: some, but not all, new trailers being manufactured today have the stronger rear underride guard seen in this 2017 crash test. And most of the existing millions of trailers on the road have the weaker, ineffective rear guards.

Only a handful of trailers on U.S. roads have side guards to stop cars like this video shows is possible. That is why the STOP Underrides! Bill is so vitally important.

44,000+ STOP Underrides! Petition Signatures Posted on the Federal Register (May 2018)

I Survived Because Of Stoughton: An improved rear underride guard saved this man from an underride death

Is safety equipment (like underride guards) a legitimate “cost of doing business” for the trucking industry?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

It’s a simple question:  Is safety equipment a legitimate “cost of doing business” for the trucking industry?

Here’s one opinion from Country Supply, Inc. (they service semi-trailers):

It looks like another rule/law is coming down the pipeline for the American transportation sector, specifically the trucking industry. In December of 2017 some members of Congress put forth legislation that will mandate new safety regulations for semis. This bill, introduced as S.2219 Stop the Underrides Act of 2017, would mandate front and side underride guards. It would also require the rear underride guards be brought up to higher and stronger standards. Safety of passenger vehicle occupants is the premise for this legislation.

If this law is passed, should we just consider it another cost of doing business for the trucking industry? If the past is any indication to what new regulations and laws will bear, then the answer is a definitive yes. For those who haven’t voluntarily installed these underride guards it might be wise to think about the ramifications of what the enactment of this law will bring and how this will potentially impact your future business costs. Hopefully, the mandating of any new requirements such as this will allow for ample time for compliance and implementation. Naturally, there are varied opinions about this bill. Not everyone is a proponent. Are You for or Against S.2219 Stop the Underrides Act of 2017?

Now wouldn’t that be wonderful if the entire industry embraced that attitude and we were all proponents of this life-saving technology? In fact, I’m chomping at the bit to organize a Third Underride Roundtable. My vision is to bring all the stakeholders back together again in order to collaborate and figure out how we can most effectively move ahead together to implement a mandate for comprehensive underride protection.

Society pay for Large Truck Crash Costs or Industry Pay for Safety Equipment as Cost of Doing Business?

 

How many families are feeling the loss of loved ones this Christmas because of preventable underride?

AnnaLeah and Mary, Truck Safety, ,

How many families are feeling the loss of loved ones this Christmas because of preventable underride? How many more must die before we solve this problem once and for all?

 

This Year & Last Year…Before & After
Existence and perception sometimes seems to have a line of demarcation [May 4, 2013]. Nothing will restore it to what it was. I have to work harder to pay attention to and be involved in the new memories–to embrace the good in the after so that it does not get lost in the longing for the before.

STOP Underrides!

The STOP Underrides! Act of 2017 Gained Another Co-Sponsor #STOPunderrides

Truck Safety,

One year ago, December 12, 2017, the STOP Underrides! Act of 2017 was introduced in both houses of the U.S. Congress. Since that day, we have educated numerous congressional offices as well as transportation industry and safety professionals.

The bill will be re-introduced in January, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) Underride Report is due to be issued in mid-February, and, on March 26, 2019, there will be an Underride Crash Test in Washington, D.C. The seeds have been planted, which we hope will soon bear fruit — leading to a mandate for comprehensive (front, side, rear) underride protection to be put on large trucks in this country.

Senator Gary Peters, from my home state of Michigan, joined other co-sponsors this past week to support the Senate version of the bill, S.2219:

Sponsor: Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY]

Sen. Rubio, Marco [R-FL]* 12/12/2017
Sen. Nelson, Bill [D-FL]* 12/12/2017
Sen. Booker, Cory A. [D-NJ] 12/13/2017
Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT] 12/14/2017
Sen. Markey, Edward J. [D-MA] 12/18/2017
Sen. Duckworth, Tammy [D-IL] 01/29/2018
Sen. Peters, Gary C. [D-MI] 12/06/2018

The House version of the bill, HR.4622:

Sponsor: Rep. Cohen, Steve [D-TN-9]

Rep. DeSaulnier, Mark [D-CA-11]* 12/12/2017
Rep. Nolan, Richard M. [D-MN-8] 12/19/2017
Rep. Cartwright, Matt [D-PA-17] 12/19/2017
Rep. Price, David E. [D-NC-4] 03/01/2018
Rep. Lofgren, Zoe [D-CA-19] 03/01/2018
Rep. Carbajal, Salud O. [D-CA-24] 03/01/2018
Rep. Lowenthal, Alan S. [D-CA-47] 03/01/2018
Rep. Norton, Eleanor Holmes [D-DC-At Large] 09/28/2018

If you see your legislators listed, please thank them. If not, please contact them and ask them to co-sponsor the STOP Underrides! Bill  — a sure way to save lives.

Take Action Today to STOP Preventable Underride Tragedies #STOPunderrides

Truck Safety,

Most people in this country do not understand the role of underride in truck crash tragedies. Once they find out though, they get it.

Do yourself and your loved ones a favor. Take time to understand what happens when a truck and smaller passenger vehicle collide and how deadly underride can be prevented. Then, take action:

  1. Sign the STOP Underrides Petition.
  2. Share the Petition link: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/104/712/045/congress-act-now-to-end-deadly-truck-underride/
  3. Call your U.S. legislators here.

IIHS crash testing with & without a side guard: 

IIHS crash testing weak rear guard & improved rear guard:

Sheep horn’s remarkable strength performance & simple structure shows promise for underride protection.

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I’m counting on enough people seeing the light. I know that underride is an engineering problem with engineering solutions. And I have been suitably impressed with learning that there are engineers who look to God’s amazing creation for some of those answers.
 
Like sheep HORNS and honeycomb to stop cars!
 
“I love Thee, O Lord my strength.”
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,
My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge;
My shield and the HORN of my salvation. . . Psalm 18:1-2
 
“The sheep horn presents outstanding mechanical properties of impact resistance and energy absorption, which suits the need of the vehicle bumper design, but the mechanism behind this phenomenon is less investigated. The microstructure and mechanical properties of the sheep horn of Small Tailed Han Sheep (Ovis aries) living in northeast China were investigated in this article. The effect of sampling position and orientation of the sheep horn sheath on mechanical properties were researched by tensile and compression tests.
 
“Meanwhile, the surface morphology and microstructure of the sheep horn were observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The formation mechanism of the mechanical properties of the sheep horn was investigated by biological coupling analysis. The analytical results indicated that the outstanding mechanical properties of the sheep horn are determined by configuration, structure, surface morphology and material coupling elements.
 
“These biological coupling elements make the sheep horn possess super characteristics of crashworthiness and energy absorption through the internal coupling mechanism. We suppose that these findings would make a difference in vehicle bumper design.” Microsc. Res. Tech. 79:664–674, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. also Microstructure and mechanical properties of sheep horn.
 
More in this research article:
 
“The rear under-run protection devices (RUPD) could prevent the entry of a small vehicle under rear side of the heavy truck, and decrease the injuries and deaths when the accident occurs. In this paper, a new concept of the mechanical design of heavy truck RUPD is presented based on the bio-inspired method, by analyzing the structure of a kind of sheep horn, which has good capacities of energy absorption and structural strength. Firstly, the space geometry characteristic of the sheep horn in macroscopic view was analyzed. Then the research was focused on its mechanical property, and the microstructure of the horn sample was observed by the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Based on the test results, the structure characteristic and force condition of the horn were discussed. A new RUPD structure was designed in both macro and micro levels using bionic principle. The superior mechanics performance of the sheep horn was transplanted into the new RUPD. Finally, the finite element model for the new RUPD, which is inspired from the sheep horn, was established and analyzed. Simulation results showed that the protection device had better strength characteristic and could effectively protect car occupants in under-run accidents. Therefore, with the remarkable strength performance and simple structure, the bionic RUPD shows the promise for practical application. “
 
Reminds me of the 2015-16 Virginia Tech Senior Design Underride Team; they came up with a whole slew of creative ideas for a rear guard (including honeycomb): https://annaleahmary.com/tag/virginia-tech-dream-team/
Oh, look, I found some other engineering students who got patents in their name from their senior projects! Let’s harness all that amazing creative ingenuity, in young and not-so-young engineers, to save lives!

Designed to be deployed externally from side of the vehicle, this airbag helps serve as an add’l crumple zone

Truck Safety, , ,
Engineering ingenuity goes hand in hand with the saying, Necessity is the mother of invention. I say, let engineers have at occupant protection — including protection of occupants in the other vehicle.
 
How about this external airbag on a truck — or some version thereof? Along with installation on the passenger vehicles, I’m thinking this could do much to improve crash survivability.

“Designed to be deployed externally from the side of the vehicle, this airbag helps serve as an additional crumple zone in the event of an accident.”

http://www.autocarpro.in/news-international/zf-designs-external-precrash-airbag-systems-and-new-seating-configurations-41405

Some say not much room to improve passive safety. I say: Plenty of room to improve underride protection!

Truck Safety, , ,

Preventing traffic deaths and injuries can be accomplished in multiple ways. Some involve active safety and some passive safety countermeasures. Some say that “passive safety technology is reaching a level of maturity, so further room for improvement is limited.”

Active Safety System Vs Passive Safety System – What Is The Difference?

As far as I am concerned, there is plenty of room for improvement in comprehensive underride protection — a form of passive safety — both in the U.S. and globally.

Let’s work together to make it happen!

@VolvoTrucksNA Why would you install safety equipment on your trucks in some countries but not others?

Truck Safety, , , , , , ,
Why would a major semi-truck manufacturer, Volvo Trucks, install FRONT UNDERRIDE PROTECTION [FUP] — safety equipment which could prevent catastrophic injuries and unimaginable deaths — on their trucks in some countries (Europe and Australia) but leave it off in other countries (North America)? Any guesses?
 
 
I would like to talk to their CEO and/or President and find out if they are aware of this situation.

Volvo U.S. Patent Application for Front Underrun Protection, 2001

Previous Front Underride Posts

A Road to Zero Coalition quarterly meeting was held on March 20, 2018, at the National Transportation Safety Board Conference Center in Washington, DC. The topic was Commercial Vehicles, from Safe Systems to Technology Innovations. (View the March 20 meeting agenda.)

The speakers and panelists at the Road to Zero Coalition spent the morning talking about Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety. Not one word was mentioned about underride until the end of the panel when the Safety VP of Schneider Trucking, Tom DeSalvio,  mentioned that they are looking at using the improved rear bumper (on new trailers). I think that they have something like 56,000 trucks in their fleet. I could be wrong.

When I asked him if they would retrofit existing trucks he talked about looking at the fleet and what ones would be turning over. I assume by that that he meant when they would get rid of old trailers and purchase new. Not retrofit existing.

I asked Skip Yeagel, Volvo Trucks, about when would Volvo put Front Underride Protection (FUP) on their trucks [in the United States] or does he think that it would take a federal mandate for them to do so. He said that he couldn’t really say but he figured that it would probably take a mandate.

Front Underrun Protection (FUP) on Volvo Trucks in Australia

Capitol Hill Underride Briefing, October 2017: Front Underride Protection Presentation Keith Friedman

European Commission Expert Proposes Draft Amendment to Improve Front Underrun Protection Standard

Truck Safety, , , , , ,

I just found this pdf from the expert from the European Commission. . . a draft amendment to update the Frontal Underrun Protection regulation. “The amendment is proposed in particular to allow more rounded shape of the cab in light of better aerodynamic performance.”   https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/doc/2018/wp29grsg/GRSG-115-25e.pdf

Good job! Join my Underride Hero Hall of Fame. Certainly ongoing traffic safety research & development is appropriate if the pursuit of the best possible protection for road users is our goal.

Well, then. . . let’s get on with it, shall we?