Category Archives: Truck Safety

4,180 Comments by Signers of the STOP Underrides! Petition in answer to the question, ” Why do you think Congress should pass the STOP Underrides! Bill?”

Truck Safety, ,

Out of the 42, 950 U.S. signatures on the STOP Underrides! Bill Petition, about 4,180 people chose to make a comment in answer to the question, Why do you think Congress should pass the STOP Underrides! Bill?

This list* was compiled on December 30, 2017 — about two weeks after the petition was launched. The signatures and comments (which generate an email to their legislators) keep coming in, including these two recent comments:

  • I hate unnecessary and intrusive government regulations, but I believe this is a simple, common sense regulation that will save lives. This is one instance where I believe a government regulation is warranted. It is not complicated or burdensome and it will save lives. Please pass this bill as soon as possible!
  • I knew the Karth girls. Secondly, if we already have the way to save lives available to us and do not use it, we should be ashamed of ourselves! The job of our government is to protect us. This is a simple, non-political way to do just that!

Here are the other 4,178 Comments: COMMENTS on STOP Underrides! Care2 Petition

One of Mary Karth’s many expressive faces reflects what countless Petition Signers wrote.        She was one of many precious lives lost too soon.

*  The first 91 pages contain the majority of the comments; the rest of the pages contain the remainder of the longer comments. Hoping to revise this format later.

Sign the Petition here: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!

Number of Signers by State

STOP Underrides! Bill Petition Signers By State

Truck Safety

STOP Underrides! Bill Petition Signers by State

as of December 31, 2017 (launched December 11, 2017)

State

Number of Petition Signers

Alabama

307

Alaska

101

American Samoa

2

Arizona

1130

Arkansas

234

California

6488

Colorado

1027

Connecticut

583

Delaware

148

Florida

3671

Georgia

844

Hawaii

193

Idaho

216

Illinois

1583

Indiana

769

Iowa

313

Kansas

292

Kentucky

472

Louisiana

320

Maine

268

Maryland

730

Massachusetts

1100

Michigan

1470

Minnesota

588

Mississippi

166

Missouri

660

Montana

135

Nebraska

165

Nevada

499

New Hampshire

248

New Jersey

1307

New Mexico

421

New York

 2783

North Carolina

1109

North Dakota

47

Ohio

1543

Oklahoma

349

Oregon

 980

Pennsylvania

1801

Rhode Island

179

South Carolina

463

South Dakota

 68

Tennessee

 711

Texas

2507

Utah

341

Vermont

145

Virginia

 955

Washington

 1366

West Virginia

256

Wisconsin

 679

Wyoming

 52

American Samoa

2

DC

46

Guam

1

Northern Mariana Islands

2

Puerto Rico

 20

Virgin Islands

4

An underride crash can happen to anyone at anytime anywhere. Everyone will benefit from this bill. Join the team; sign the petition: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!

Interactive Underride Crash Map

How many are enough signatures to make Congress listen? How many underride tragedies are enough to make us — the government, the trucking industry, and We the People — act decisively to end these senseless and preventable deaths?

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about the STOP Underrides! Bill

Truck Safety,

Here is a FAQ document with answers to frequently asked questions about the STOP Underrides! Bill: FAQ STOP Underrides! Bill

I hope that it helps to get us all on the same page and moving more quickly toward effective collaboration to end truck underride tragedies with Win/Win solutions.

After all, this is not about getting the truck industry to get in line or else. To quote Rose in The Last Jedi: That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.

Sen. Gillibrand questions Chris Spear, CEO of ATA, on truck underride protection.

Truck Safety, , , ,

This morning, Senator Gillibrand took the opportunity at a Senate Environment & Public Works Committee Hearing to ask Chris Spear, CEO of the American Trucking Associations, some questions about truck underride.

Thank you, Senator Gillibrand, for continuing to move us forward toward an end to preventable underride tragedies.

I met with Chris Spear on March 29, 2017, to discuss our newly drafted underride bill. And I wrote a post in May in response to the kinds of concerns he raised in the hearing today. He asked Senator Gillibrand to encourage NHTSA to speed their evaluation of whether the added weight of side guards would compromise the structural integrity of trailers.

Here is that post: Question for the ATA: Is it necessary to choose EITHER crash avoidance OR occupant protection — not BOTH?

And here is the response to Mr. Spear’s concerns — from the inventor of the AngelWing side guard, Perry Ponder:

AngelWing has undergone extensive standard industry testing and analysis including durability track testing. Designed by a trailer engineer (me), AngelWing works in harmony with existing trailer designs with no effect on the trailer structure or durability. 

Help hasten the installation of effective truck underride protection. Sign & Share our petition: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!

Interactive Underride Crash Map Launched This Week

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We launched an Interactive Underride Crash Story Map earlier this week. We have only just begun to add links for the thousands of underride tragedies which are too well remembered in the decades of neglect of this problem.  Many families may not even have realized that they lost their loved one because of preventable underride.

See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and on our Interactive Underride Crash Map. To add more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to this map, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com; use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form.

Here is the map.

See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and on our Interactive Underride Crash Map. To add more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to this map, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com; use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form.

Spotlight on Introduction of Bipartisan/Bicameral Bill to STOP Underride Tragedies

Truck Safety

It has been an exciting day and the bill has gotten needed attention. Signatures continue coming in expressing public support. Glad that Jerry Karth, Susanna Karth and Caleb Karth could be there today. Rebekah Karth Chojnacki is gathering the news reports for us (we just got home from DC). Peter Karth developed the interactive underride crash map (patiently working with his mother) — to which I now need to keep adding crash information. Isaac Karth updated the website. Levi Karth brought us exciting news of his engagement. And Samuel Karth keeps us smiling with news of Jerome.

In Memory of AnnaLeah & Mary and Roya, too – RAM: The Naming of an Underride Bill; Out of the Mouths of Babes

I am very thankful for the media coverage of the Introduction of the Bipartisan/Bicameral STOP Underrides! Act of 2017. The problem of underride has been poorly understood, and I am hopeful that this action on the part of four legislators — Senator Gillibrand, Senator Rubio, Congressman Cohen, and Congressman DeSaulnier — will get the ball rolling toward greater awareness and decisive action.

There have been a flurry of reports:

 

Help get public support behind this bill! Sign & share our Petition: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!

Underride 101

December 13, 2017, UPDATE: We now have an Interactive Underride Crash Story Map. We have only just begun to add links for the countless underride tragedy stories. If you have information on an underride crash, or would like to add more details about the people touched by these tragedies, email us at underridemap@gmail.com. Here is the map.

STOP Underrides Bill to be Introduced 12/12/17; Petition launched on first day of #UnderrideAwarenessWeek

Truck Safety

We have launched the Stop Underrides Bill Petition today. Please sign & share. Public support is crucial to ending Death by Underride.  #underrideawarenessweek

Sign Here: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!

On 12/12/2017, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Rubio and Congressman Cohen will introduce the Stop Underrides! Bill. This important legislation will save countless lives.

DATE: TOMORROW, Tuesday, December 12th
TIME: 10:15 AM
PLACE: Senate Visitors Center 212
United States Capitol Visitors Center
First St NE
Washington, DC 20515

 

Retrofitting the millions of trucks on the road could mean people like this man would live to see another day.

Truck Safety,

Early in the day, as travelers made their way to Thanksgiving celebrations, WUSA9 reported that yet one more person has died due to a defective truck design.

One person is dead after a car ran off the road and then crashed into the back off a tractor trailer early Thursday morning in the Franconia area. 1 dead in Va. after car runs off road, crashes into tractor trailer

Retrofitting the millions of trucks on the road could mean people like this man would live to see another day.

A man has died after a car crash on the Capital Beltway early Thanksgiving morning, police say.

Christopher S. Padilla, 30, of Alexandria, was killed when his 2013 Honda Civil crashed into the back of a parked tractor-trailer in Franconia, Virginia, early Thursday, Virginia State Police said. 

The driver of the tractor-trailer had mechanical trouble early Thursday and pulled onto the right shoulder of I-495 just south of Exit 173/Van Dorn Avenue, police said. 

He inspected his vehicle and was about to drive away when he felt the impact of the crash. 

The front of Padilla’s car was forced under the rear of the tractor-trailer. Man Killed in Thanksgiving Day Crash on Beltway in Virginia

However, if the decision is made to not retrofit, many people will die as a result.

The Retrofit Question: Should we add underride protection to existing trucks OR decide to let people die?

Yet one more family will dread the holidays because Death By Underride has been left unchecked.

Truck Safety

I just learned about an underride crash in Nevada on Sunday. The photo in the news report tells the sad and senseless story.

The semi driver began braking and made an improper left turn into the dirt center median with signage marked “No U-Turn” and “Authorized Vehicles Only.” The driver of the Kia then struck the trailer of the semi causing the Kia to be partially pinned under the trailer.

A 3-year-old girl who was injured in Sunday’s crash on northbound Interstate 15 near Moapa has died.

The girl was airlifted to Sunrise Pediatrics with critical injuries and succumbed to the injuries sustained in the crash.

An 11-year-old boy who also was injured was taken by ambulance to UMC Trauma with serious but nonlife-threatening injuries. 3-year-old girl dies from injuries in crash on I-15 near Moapa

Also reported here: 3-year-old Utahn girl dies in crash involving semi on I-15

Yet one more family will dread the holidays because Death By Underride has been left unchecked. When will we act to end these senseless tragedies?

Why Has the Truck Underride Problem Been Left Unchecked for Decades?

Truck Safety, , ,

Truck underride is what frequently happens when a passenger vehicle collides with a large truck. Because the truck was unfortunately defectively designed to be above the level of the crush zone of the smaller vehicle, the passenger vehicle goes under the truck and the crashworthy safety features of the car are not able to work. Or, to put it another way, the truck enters the occupant space of the passenger vehicle — too often resulting in horrific death and debilitating injuries.

Hundreds of people die this way every year — the victims of senseless, preventable death by underride.  Yet, for decades, this problem has been left unchecked. Little has been done to preserve the occupant space and make truck crashes more survivable. Why is that?

Basically, the government has waited for the trucking industry to prove that it could do something to prevent these deaths. The trucking industry, for its part, has been waiting for the government to tell it whether or not, and how, to address this problem — before devoting R & D resources to it in order to come up with solutions. Meanwhile, the unsuspecting traveling public is left vulnerable and precious blood continues to be needlessly spilled on our roads.

Stalemate. Catch 22. Limbo. Standstill. Impasse.

The STOP Underrides! Bill will break this deadlock and get the ball rolling so that creative engineers can put effective underride protection on every truck — resulting in more truck crash survivors who can live to see another day.

This bill has been drafted by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. On December 12, 2017, Senator Gillibrand, Senator Rubio, and Congressman Steve Cohen will be introducing it in Congress.  They are all seeking Republican co-sponsors for this long-overdue, life-saving legislation.

Sign & Share the STOP Underrides! Bill Petition here: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!.

Find out more about underride at our Underride Guards Page.