Category Archives: Truck Safety

New NHTSA Study: Computer Modeling & Evaluation Of Side Underride Designs

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NHTSA has finally released the report from the side underride study which they commissioned Texas A&M to do in 2016-2017. Here is the press release:  https://www.nhtsa.gov/crashworthiness/truck-underride

The study: Computer Modeling and Evaluation Of Side Underride Protective Device Designs

More later on our analysis of the research.

Knee-jerk reaction: I am glad that they finally proceeded with technical studies on side underride. But countless lives have been lost since 1969 when DOT announced that they intended to extend underride protection on the sides of large trucks after technical studies were completed.

It is high time for someone to act responsibly. Either Senator Thune can respond and move the STOP Underrides Bill forward, or NHTSA can act on its own and do supplemental comprehensive underride rulemaking. Either way, many lives will be saved.

If they refuse to act appropriately, who should bear the blame for continued preventable underride tragedies?

Hearing to Consider Heidi King to Head Natl Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Lois and I met with Heidi King in March to discuss the underride problem. We are looking forward to the upcoming hearing which could put her in a key leadership role — enabling her to appropriately address underride.

May 16, 2018

Nominations Hearing

U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, will convene a hearing at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 16, 2018, to consider three presidential nominees.

Completed nomination questionnaires are available at www.commerce.senate.gov/nominations

Witnesses:

  • Mr. Joseph Gruters, of Florida, to be a Director of the Amtrak Board of Directors
  • Ms. Jennifer Homendy, of Virginia, to be a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)
  • Ms. Heidi King, of California, to be Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)

*Witness list subject to change.

Hearing Details:

Wednesday, May 16, 2018
10:00 a.m.
Full Committee

This hearing will take place in Russell Senate Office Building, Room 253. Witness testimony, opening statements, and a live video of the hearing will be available on www.commerce.senate.gov.

National Sheriffs’ Association Urges Congress To Enact The “Vital & Pivotal” STOP Underrides! Bill

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We were excited to receive a Letter of Support for the STOP Underrides! Bill this week from the National Sheriffs’ Association and their Traffic Safety Committee. It was encouraging to know that they “get it” and are supporting our efforts to end preventable underride tragedies.
The NSA STOP Underrides Letter of Support to Congress closes with these thoughts:

. . . these substandard designs can be retrofitted and adapted with the proper side guards and rear guards that will provide passenger vehicle protection. These pivotal changes are in the hands of Congress to enact solutions that are mandatory for compliant commercial vehicles. The STOP Underrides Act of 2017, in both the House and the Senate, is an important piece of legislation that works to correct this “geometric mismatch” to better protect roadway drivers and traffic safety.

The National Sheriffs’ Association Traffic Safety Committee believes that this bill is vital to the efforts to prevent these crashes from occurring, first and foremost and also to lower roadway deaths, injuries, and property damage. We applaud the efforts of Senators Gillibrand and Rubio, as well as Congressman Cohen and DeSaulnier as they work to combat and improve safety on our nation’s roadways.

This request is deeply personal to all of us and will protect our constituents on our roadways, protect our law enforcement officers and first responders, and lower deaths and injuries.

Thank you for your consideration of our request.

Sincerely,

Sheriff Harold Eavenson, Rockwall County, TX, President, National Sheriffs’ Association

Sheriff John Whetsel (Ret.), Oklahoma County, OK, Chair, Traffic Safety Committe

Lois Durso and I will be back in DC next week to attend the May 16 nomination hearing for NHTSA Administrator nominee Heidi King (currently serving as the NHTSA Deputy Administrator). We welcome opportunities to sit down and share our stories and knowledge of this preventable problem. And we are hopeful that there will be significant action to move this life-preserving legislation forward posthaste.

 

“It doesn’t take much force at all to turn an otherwise minor accident into a deadly one.” #truckunderride

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“It doesn’t take much force at all to turn an otherwise minor accident into a deadly one.” Insightful coverage of the truck underride problem by a reporter in Dallas/Fort Worth who contacted and interviewed Rebekah Karth Chojnacki today. Well done, Rebekah.

“AnnaLeah died instantly. Mary had a stroke and died several days later at a Children’s Hospital in Georgia,” said their sister, Rebekah Chojnacki.

The family soon learned that tractor trailers in the United States are required to have a rear guard to prevent so called ‘underride’ crashes where passenger vehicles slip underneath larger trucks. In many cases, though, like in the Karths’ collision, they fail.

“We don’t want to just say this a tragedy and there’s nothing we can do about it. There are solutions, and we want to help be the solution,” said Chojnacki. . . 

Frustrated by the lack of progress, the Karth family helped write legislation that would require these improved standards for rear guards and, for the first time, mandate side impact guards. . .

Karth knows, though, the fight is not over yet. “Until we get enough support to get this bill passed, people will continue to die,” she said.

Family Trying To Change Law, Save Lives 5 Years After Deadly Big Rig Crash

Thank you, Andrea Lucia & CBS DFW.

Rebekah & Susanna Karth were also interviewed by a DFW station shortly after the crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbKhY0gXQqY We are thankful that this issue is getting needed attention and have high hopes that this will come to a vote soon to mandate an end to these needless, preventable tragedies.

With the help of He who watches over us. . . may this be done swiftly for the preserving of many lives.

Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!

Underride in the News

Truck Safety

I have been on a trip overseas with my son Levi and his fiancee in Paraguay where they will soon be missionaries. I, of course, couldn’t stop myself from taking photos of trucks on the road as we drove from city to city.

I didn’t have much connectivity while I was gone for the past week and so am just catching up on the recent news articles and broadcasts on underride:

TrailerGuard: New technology aims to reduce the number of deaths caused by side and rear underride accidents.

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. . . several entrepreneurs—not to mention truck manufacturers—have been working to develop new side and rear guards. One of these entrepreneurs is Aaron Kiefer, founder of Collision Safety Consulting, a North Carolina-based outfit whose TrailerGuard system reinforces the rear of a truck and also features a “SafetySkirt” that extends along the side of a tractor-trailer, one which can potentially prevent vulnerable road users and cars from going underneath a truck. 

In the following Failure Magazine Interview, Kiefer discusses the safety issues surrounding underride accidents and how the TrailerGuard system has the potential to protect side and rear underride crash victims from death and catastrophic injuries.

TrailerGuard: Making Underride Accidents Less Deadly, First in a series of articles about the truck underride issue — by Jason Zasky,  failuremag.com

TrailerGuard: collisionsafetyconsulting.com

@EricFlack & @WUSA9 Win Murrow Journalism Award for Truck Underride Series

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Many reporters have helped to raise awareness of this hidden problem. By working together, we are getting closer to ending preventable underride tragedies.

What if we proved truck side guards could stop a car at 47 mph? Would we mandate their use? Guess what!

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Even though the DOT has been talking about the need for side guards on trucks since 1969, they have still not required them to be put on large trucks — despite the fact that hundreds of people die every year when their car goes under a truck. Imagine.

What will it take to get them to mandate this safety feature? So far, the successful crash test at 35 mph into a side guard in March 2017 at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has not resulted in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on this needed safety countermeasure. Neither has the successful crash test at 40 mph, which took place at the IIHS during the August 29, 2017, Underride Roundtable, seemed to convince them to act.

Well, what if we show them that the AngelWing side guard was successfully tested at 47.2 mph by its inventor, Perry Ponder of Seven Hills Engineering? (Which would, of course, change the cost benefit analysis required for rulemaking. . . with proof of more potential lives saved!)

Side Underride Guard Test at 47.2 mph. 44 mph delta-V. Dummy results excellent. Test conducted at Karco Engineering by Seven Hills Engineering. www.7he.us. 850-222-7973.

Let’s hope that this proof, of the ability of engineers to solve a deadly problem, will wake up the sleeping giant to act decisively and issue a supplemental comprehensive underride protection rulemaking to protect us all from preventable Death by Underride — which could, of course, be mandated by an act of Congress called the STOP Underrides! Bill of 2017 (still waiting to be passed into law).

Who will have the guts (courage, conviction, resolve) to do the right thing?

Could Mary Barra Help Me Make Sure the Buck Stops Where It Should For Truck Underride Responsibility?

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Message to Leaders in the Government and Trucking Industry:

Where does the buck stop? Who should we hold responsible for these deaths?

It’s all too easy to wait for SOMEONE ELSE to take responsibility and DO SOMETHING about this! How else do people sleep at night unless they convince themselves that IT ISN’T UP TO THEM to solve the problem?

Who gets blamed? The victim or the truck driver.

p.s.  And what about these life-long injuries that rarely get included in the benefit category when there is the inevitable CBA?

Marianne’s To Do List:
  1. Call Mary Barra to discuss her strategy to deal with the GM Nod and the GM Salute.
  2. Oh, wait! She only had to deal with internal problems in one company not a multi-layered complex underride fiasco.

 

What are we waiting for? People continue to die from underride crashes. Solutions are available.

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Four more reasons to move forward with the STOP Underrides! legislation.