Category Archives: Truck Safety

An unexpected phone call from a trailer buyer with good news on underride guards

February 20, 2016AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck Safetytrailer manufacturers, underride guardsMarianne

Jerry was pleasantly surprised tonight by a phone call from Greer Woodruff, Vice President of Safety & Security at J.B. Hunt. J. B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc. is a trucking and transportation company that was founded by Johnnie Bryan Hunt, and based in the Northwest Arkansas city of Lowell.

Greer was calling to let Jerry know that Wabash National, a trailer manufacturer, had redesigned their rear underride guard to provide better protection at the outer edges of the guard. And he also wanted us to know that J.B. Hunt was the first to purchase the new trailers–having ordered 4,000 of them in January.

We had already heard about that yesterday morning. Thank you, Wabash, for creating a safer truck rear underride guard!

But then Greer went on to say that he had wanted to be sure and tell us about it and thank us for the letters, which Jerry wrote to J.B. Hunt–along with the major trailer manufacturers and many other trailer buyers, back in 2014 before we launched our first petition. Those letters, he said, had raised their awareness about the underride problem and spurred them on to talk to the trailer manufacturers about producing safer trailers.

That brought a smile to Jerry’s face.

We look forward to finding out more details about its design features and what level of protection it provides. Also, we hope to see additional attention given to side and front underride protection and retrofitting existing trailers as well.

Meanwhile, we are encouraged to see that progress is being made in moving toward the best possible protection with both voluntary and regulatory action. The Vision Zero Petition Book has arrived!

First set of letters which Jerry sent to trailer buyers in February 2014 (a variation of this went to trailer manufacturers):

One of the letters which went out to trailer manufacturers in February 2014:

A second set of letters went out in March 2014 to clarify our role/position:

Another letter went out asking for support to our petition request for stronger underride guards:

And then Jerry sent a follow-up letter in the fall of 2014, including with it copies of the IIHS Status Reports which had articles on underride guards:

IIHS Status Reports with articles on underride guards, which we included with the letters to the trucking companies:

Finally, after setting up our non-profit, AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety, in the summer of 2015, we wrote to all of the truck companies again–asking for their help to voluntarily find safer underride guard designs:

Also, sometime after our letter writing, we were discussing our efforts with John Lannen at the Truck Safety Coalition. He asked for our list and said, “Thanks – I’ll follow up with Greer since I know him well. What reaction did you get?”

In our efforts to not only improve regulatory federal standards on underride guards but, also, to catalyze voluntary industry improvement, we heard back from several other companies to whom we had written, including:

UPS in Atlanta (Dan)
CR England (Chad England)
Extra Mile Transportation (Brent)
J.B. Hunt (Greer Woodruff, Lowell, AK
UPS (buys from Great Dane)
FedEx

For more details on the response we got from them, see: Additional response from trucking industry to our request for voluntary action on underride problem.

Photo Album of Jerry and his girls: With Dad. . . Family Man Jerry prays for his children every morning (lifting them before their heavenly Father/Abba). He is proud of them, teases them, enjoys spending time with them, and treasures each of his special children.

Jerry shares our story at the Fall 2015 Sorrow to Strength conference in DC hosted by the Truck Safety Coalition:

The Vision Zero Petition Book has arrived!

February 19, 2016AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetyVision Zero, Vision Zero Book, Vision Zero PetitionMarianne

On May 5, 2014, we delivered 11,000 AnnaLeah & Mary Stand Up for Truck Safety petition envelopes to DOT in Washington, DC.

This time around, thanks to Jerry’s brainstorm, we are delivering the petitions in a bound copy of The Vision Zero Petition Book. All of the first 16, 516 signatures (and any comments which they made) will be in the book, along with the letters to President Obama and Secretary Foxx and a whole lot of other information which I compiled to spell out how we are asking them to implement our Vision Zero petition requests–creatively arranged by Isaac.

Two weeks from today, on March 4, we will be delivering the book to DOT and to various legislators as well as dropping off a copy at The White House. In addition, Care2 will be printing a binder with all of the signatures–up to printing time–and get it to us on February 29; we will take that along to deliver to DOT.

Five boxes of the book arrived today! Excited to see what will come about!

It’s not too late for names to be added! Sign & Share: Save Lives Not Dollars: Urge DOT to Adopt a Vision Zero Policy

Our Petition Delivery to DC on MAY 5, 2014:

Automatic Braking Systems: Enforceable federal safety standards vs voluntary industry standards

February 18, 2016Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetyNHTSA rulemaking, voluntary standardsMarianne

Should we be concerned that NHTSA is leaning toward accepting voluntary standards to be written by the automotive industry regarding automatic braking systems for cars rather than developing federal standards?

Safety advocates are raising concerns about this:

The technology automatically applies brakes to prevent or mitigate collisions, rather than waiting for the driver to act. It’s the most important safety technology available today that’s not already required in cars.

Such systems should be standard in all new cars, says the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. But instead of mandating it, the government is trying to work out a voluntary agreement with automakers in hopes of getting it in cars more quickly.

But safety advocates say voluntary agreements aren’t enforceable and are likely to contain weaker standards and longer timelines than if the government had issued rules. Safety groups want braking mandate

And Michael Lemov would certainly think so based upon what I read in his historical , eye-opening book, Car Safety Wars: One Hundred Years of Technology, Politics, and Death:

Voluntary industry standards, in any industry, have the reputation of often being weak standards. They are enforceable only through publicity and public awareness, not by government action. The level of such voluntary standards, set by industry committees with limited public participation, can be that demanded by the weakest company, the one with the tightest profit margins. Voluntary standards are ‘consensus’ standards, based on agreement of all industry participants. In dealing with the lives and safety of so many people, safety standards, are, and were then, matters not of consensus but of public importance. (Lemov, p. 94) Congress, Please give NHTSA the authority & resources to do their job and keep us safe on the road!

And read more here:

I’m all for getting safety solutions implemented as quickly as possible. But what is the most realistic and comprehensive means of getting this accomplished in a way that will have far-reaching and enforceable results? That’s what I want to know.

Thank you, 19,000 signers on our #VisionZero petition!

February 18, 2016AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetyVision Zero, Vision Zero PetitionMarianne

Thank you, Wabash, for creating a safer truck rear underride guard!

February 18, 2016Safety Advocacy, Truck Safetyrear underride guards, underride guards, WabashMarianne

Ted Scott, from the American Trucking Association, just emailed me with the news about the new rear underride guard design announced yesterday by Wabash (a trailer manufacturer).

The new rear impact guard is constructed of advanced high-strength steel. Its patent-pending design features two additional vertical posts and a longer, reinforced bumper tube, all of which are engineered to work together to absorb energy better and deflect rear impact at any point along the bumper. In addition, the new guard is fully galvanized to resist corrosion. Wabash Debuts Rear Impact Guard Design for its Dry Van Trailers

Thank you, Wabash, for your commitment to safer trucks.

“Our work on the rear impact guard, and trailer performance in general, isn’t finished,” added Giromini. “Innovation is ongoing at Wabash National. We’re continually looking at ways to optimize total performance through engineering and the use of advanced materials in ways that make sense for our customers.”

I hope that means that they will also be looking at side guard and retrofitting solutions as well.

And thank you, J.B. Hunt, for already ordering 4,000 new trailers with the improved underride protection to put on our roads.

Truck SIDE GUARDS: Let’s get the debate out in the open. Somebody’s life is depending on it. #VRU

February 16, 2016Safety Advocacy, Truck Safetycyclists, pedestrians, side guards, side underride, underride guards, VRU, Vulnerable Road UsersMarianne

The question was brought to my attention as to whether truck side guards, if they were strong enough to prevent passenger vehicle underride (i.e., probable death or severe injury), would be more harmful to pedestrians and cyclists (Vulnerable Road Users–VRU).

I didn’t know. So I asked the experts with whom I am acquainted, and this is what I found out:

Hi MarianneWell-designed rear, side, front underride protection on trucks, will not make it more dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists, but potentially make it safer for peds and cyclists.
This is discussed in my truck report of 1993 and PhD, and our 2014 paper on side underrun barriers. Side Underrun Barriers Rechnitzer & Grzetieta

Of course, that is the point – to have performance criteria for these systems – front and side – that include peds and cyclists.

Regards

Dr George Rechnitzer, Forensic and Safety Engineering
Victoria, Australia, Website: http://www.georgerechnitzer.com.au/

Adjunct Assoc. Professor George Rechnitzer, Transport and Road Safety (TARS) Research, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Web: http://www.tars.unsw.edu.au/
The other feedback, which I received from a crash reconstructionist friend who sees the aftermath of lots of crashes firsthand, was more short and to the point: “I think that stronger side skirts will save lives no matter what vehicle is in play. Would you, as a cyclist, rather bump your head on a resilient skirt (or a flexible one like mine for that matter) or slide underneath a trailer and end up looking like a pancake?”

Goodness, I sure hope that we can help shed light on issues such as these at the Underride Roundtable on May 5, 2016. Delays resulting from endless debate and/or stalling on problem-solving has already led to too many needless and preventable deaths.

Aaron Kiefer’s Innovative Side/Rear Underride Guard

Hopefully, Coming Soon To A Road Near You!

“I want to be famous somehow. I don’t know how but I just do.” Mary Karth, April 2013.

February 12, 2016AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetyMakeaWish, Vision ZeroMarianne

“I want to be famous somehow. I don’t know how but I just do.” Mary Karth, April 2013. (Photo 2005)

The Save Lives Not Dollars: Urge DOT to Adopt a Vision Zero Policy Petition reached 16,500 signatures today. I guess you “got” your wish, Mary, because a lot of people have heard about you and your sister and are standing with us to speak up for safer roads.

In memory of AnnaLeah & Mary Lydia Karth

A Mother’s Memories

AnnaLeah’s Statement of Faith 3

Recently-posted Public Comments on Truck Underride Upgrade. . . Public Comment Period ends 2/16/16

February 10, 2016Truck SafetyNHTSA rulemaking, truck underrideMarianne

Here are the most recent comments posted on the Federal Register for the rear underride rulemaking for trailers (including the Virginia Tech engineering student design team):

DOCUMENT ID: NHTSA-2015-0118-0013 (http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NHTSA-2015-0118-0013)
DOCUMENT TYPE: SUPPORTING & RELATED MATERIALS
POSTED DATE: 02/09/2016
DOCUMENT TITLE: Response to NPRM: Rear Impact Guards, Rear Impact Protection

DOCUMENT ID: NHTSA-2015-0118-0014 (http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NHTSA-2015-0118-0014)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 02/09/2016
DOCUMENT TITLE: Comment of The National Transportation Safety Board

DOCUMENT ID: NHTSA-2015-0118-0015 (http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NHTSA-2015-0118-0015)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 02/09/2016
DOCUMENT TITLE: Comment from American Trucking Association

This is the comment from the Virginia Tech Senior Underride Design Team:

DOCUMENT ID: NHTSA-2015-0118-0016 (http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NHTSA-2015-0118-0016)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 02/09/2016
DOCUMENT TITLE: Comment from Mechanical Engineering Underride Design Group

DOCUMENT ID: NHTSA-2015-0118-0017 (http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=NHTSA-2015-0118-0017)
DOCUMENT TYPE: PUBLIC SUBMISSIONS
POSTED DATE: 02/09/2016
DOCUMENT TITLE: Comment from The Association for the Work Truck Industry

All comments can be seen here: http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;dct=FR+PR+N+O+SR;rpp=10;po=0;D=NHTSA-2015-0118

The formal Public Comment period will end on February 16, 2016.

Underride Rulemaking: Will we get it right this time?!

February 9, 2016AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetyIIHS, NHTSA rulemaking, underride crash, underride guards, underride researchMarianne

Now this makes me mad! I just found an IIHS Status Report from March 29, 1977: http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr1206.pdf

IIHS was reporting on a meeting that took place on March 16, 1977 — three days before I got married! That’s almost 39 years ago — long before any of my 9 children were born, let alone my two youngest daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary!

The government and industry apparently didn’t get underride rulemaking right then! And they clearly hadn’t gotten it right by May 4, 2013 — when Mary and AnnaLeah died from truck underride! But they better watch out, because I am not going to sit by and watch while thousands more die for no good reason!

See the testimony in May 2009 by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in which they call for tougher underride guard standards and with an attachment of the history of federal rulemaking on underride guards (pasted below): http://tinyurl.com/phlaqon

“The history of Federal rulemaking on truck underride guards:

1953 Interstate Commerce Commission adopts rule requiring rear underride guards on trucks and trailers but sets no strength requirements.
1967 National Highway Safety Bureau (NHSB), predecessor to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), indicates it will develop a standard for truck underride guards.
1969 NHSB indicates it will conduct research on heavy vehicle underride guard configurations to provide data for the preparation of a standard. In the same year the Federal Highway Administration publishes a proposal to require trailers and trucks to have strong rear-end structures extending to within 18 inches of the road surface.
1970 NHSB says it would be “impracticable” for manufacturers to engineer improved underride protectors into new vehicles before 1972. The agency considers an effective date of January 1, 1974 for requiring underride guards with energy-absorbing features as opposed to rigid barriers.
1971 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommends that NHTSA require energy-absorbing underride and override barriers on trucks, buses, and trailers. Later in the same year NHTSA abandons its underride rulemaking, saying it has “no control over the vehicles after they are sold” and “it can only be assumed that certain operators will remove the underride guard.” The Bureau of Motor Carrier Safety (BMCS), predecessor to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, considers a regulatory change that would prohibit alteration of manufacturer-installed equipment. This would nullify the major reason NHTSA cited for abandoning the proposed underride standard.
1972 NTSB urges NHTSA to renew the abandoned underride proposal.
1974 US Secretary of Transportation says deaths in cars that underride trucks would have to quadruple before underride protection would be considered cost beneficial.
1977 IIHS testifies before the Consumer Subcommittee of the US Senate Commerce Committee, noting that devices to stop underride have been technologically available for years. IIHS tests demonstrate that a crash at less than 30 mph of a subcompact car into a guard meeting current requirements results in severe underride. IIHS also demonstrates the feasibility of effective underride guards that do not add significant weight to trucks. IIHS petitions NHTSA to initiate rulemaking to establish a rear underride standard. The agency agrees to reassess the need for such a standard and later in the year announces plans to require more effective rear underride protection. BMCS publishes a new but weak proposal regarding underride protection.
1981 NHTSA issues a proposal to require upgraded underride protection.
1986 IIHS study reveals that rear guards designed to prevent cars from underriding trucks appear to be working well on British rigs.
1987 European underride standard is shown to reduce deaths caused by underride crashes.
1996 NHTSA finally issues a new standard, effective 1998.”

IIHS, 2009

I also found this underride research article tonight from 1998: http://papers.sae.org/982755/

Mariolani, J., Schmutzler, L., Arruda, A., Occhipinti, S. et al., “Impact Project: Searching for Solution to the Underride Problem,” SAE Technical Paper 982755, 1998, doi:10.4271/982755.

“Rear underride crashes kill thousands of people yearly worldwide. Underride guards did not follow the progress achieved by the automotive safety technology. . .”

And now, here we are in 2016: http://www.regulations.gov/#!docketDetail;D=NHTSA-2015-0118.

Let’s get it right this time. Somebody’s life depends on it. Lots of somebodies.

Underride Roundtable coming up soon: https://annaleahmary.com/2015/10/underride-roundtable-save-the-date-may-5-2016/

Donate to our underride research here: https://www.fortrucksafety.com/

Missin’ you, AnnaLeah & Mary. . .

Share our Vision Zero Petition in memory of AnnaLeah & Mary: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/417/742/234/save-lives-not-dollars-urge-dot-to-adopt-vision-zero-policy/

“Our grandma wants to make the roads safer.” Remembering 2 girls in the aftermath of a truck crash https://annaleahmary.com/2015/11/our-grandma-wants-to-make-the-roads-safer-remembering-2-girls-in-the-aftermath-of-a-truck-crash/

“Controlling risk during crashes is an energy-management problem.”

February 7, 2016AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, Truck SafetyDean Sicking, NASCAR Safer Barrier, underride crash, underride researchMarianne

“Basically controlling risk during crashes is an energy-management problem. Our knowledge and understanding of energy management today is a lot better than it was in 1998. And in 1998, it was a lot better than it was in 1988.”

–DEAN SICKING

Let’s give Dean the chance to apply his expertise in NASCAR safety technology to improving truck underride protection: https://www.fortrucksafety.com/

Dean’s Underride Research Proposal: Development of Trailer Underride Preventive Measures

Printable & clickable brochure: ALMFTS Underride Guard Research Brochure

IIHS Report on truck underride crash tests and our story: IIHS Status Report October 2014

Listen to the discussion of Dean Sicking’s SAFER Barrier at Daytona, DAYTONA TO RING ENTIRE TRACK WITH SAFER BARRIER :

For more information about AnnaLeah & Mary’s story and for details about the underride guard issue, go to: https://annaleahmary.com/underride-guards/

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