Critique of NHTSA-Contracted Elemance Rear Impact Guard Research

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , , , , , ,

Secretary Duffy,

The Department of Transportation (DOT) engaged Elemance LLC in 2022 to evaluate three current designs of rear impact guards. Unfortunately, Elemance conducted Finite Element analysis of two obsolete rear underride guards that were not current designs at the time of the contract. In fact, both of those designs had been proven a decade earlier to be crash-deficient. The two manufacturers — Great Dane and Wabash — have developed designs with safer, stronger rear-guard designs. Elemance compounded that error by employing an erroneous definition of Passenger Compartment Intrusion. Elemance’s research findings, Heavy-Truck Rear-Impact-Guard Finite Element Simulation and Analysis, are flawed and backwards-looking rather than helpful to the Department and Congress in evaluating current and future rear underride guard performance and regulatory standards.

Please find attached a detailed critique by engineers who are well-acquainted with the underride problem and solutions. This is what the engineers concluded about the NHTSA-contracted research:

In view of the defects in the Elemance report, a follow up study should be commissioned to evaluate examples of current state of the art rear impact guards that have been in service since 2016 and 2017 respectively. The study should utilize the correct definition of PCI and more accurately assess injury risk.

The Department should act promptly to address the flaws in this federal research in order to fulfill its mission to reduce roadway injuries and deaths.

Jerry and Marianne Karth

Note: This critique was submitted as a Public Comment on September 3, 2025, to the U.S. Department of Transportation in response to their Request for Comments on priorities for the 2026 Surface Transportation Reauthorization.

This video created by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety twelve years ago explains their Rear Impact Guard crash testing research and how the federal standard is failing to protect road users:

This video is a compilation of IIHS Rear Impact Guard crash tests with old and new guard designs for many of the major trailer manufacturers:

This video demonstrates the night & day difference between old and new designs by one manufacturer:

The Missing Piece of the Roadway Safety Puzzle: National Roadway Safety Advocate

Safety Advocacy, , ,

It was puzzling to me how very challenging it is to advance safety measures to save lives. Then I realized that there is a MISSING PIECE of the PUZZLE: there is no National Roadway Safety Advocate at the US Department of Transportation.

Put together this online jigsaw puzzle: https://jigex.com/NfTV3

Then make a comment online to Secretary Sean Duffy (at USDOT). Let him know that you want him to put a person to work as soon as possible who will be a dedicated resource to victims and their families – a National Roadway Safety Advocate.

Submit your Public Comment here no later than August 20, 2025.

(step-by-step instructions)

Then, please share this request to amplify your voice.

Read more here.

DOT Is Asking For Input. Tell Them To Give Crash Victims a Voice

Safety Advocacy, , , , , , , , ,

When it comes to changes needed to make our roads safer, who cares more deeply than crash survivors or victim families? The Department of Transportation is asking for the public to submit their comments on what should be included in the 2026 Surface Transportation Reauthorization Bill; Secretary Duffy is looking for ideas to make our roads safer.

Let him know that you want victims to have a voice within the Department and that a means to do so has already been proposed by Senator Lujan and Congressman Cohen. The DOT Victim & Survivor Advocate Act would create a National Roadway Safety Advocate to serve as a voice for victims and survivors of roadway crashes and their families — ensuring their perspectives are considered in transportation safety policies.

I know from twelve years of road safety advocacy that this resource is extremely important but is not currently available to assist those who are keenly motivated to bring about change. Let Secretary Duffy know that you want him to put that plan into place.

Submit your Public Comment here no later than August 20, 2025.

(step-by-step instructions)

Then, please share this request to amplify your voice.

Podcast from Streetsblog, July 29, 2025, What Will It Take To Give Victims and Advocates a Voice at US DOT?

There are too many families like the ones who have told their stories below. They need to be heard. . .

I’m grateful for everyone who takes the time to submit a comment. You can see all comments submitted here. Running list of comments requesting a National Roadway Safety Advocate are here.

Quotes from supporters are available here (a list of safety groups and victim/survivors quoted in Senator Lujan & Congressman Cohen press release upon bicameral introduction of the DOT Victim & Survivor Advocate Act).

First-time Ever: NHTSA Nominee Questioned On Underride By Senator

Truck Safety, , , , , ,

For the first time in DOT’s history, a nominee for NHTSA Administrator was questioned in a hearing about the agency’s lack of progress in preventing underride deaths. Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) questioned Jonathan Morrison about NHTSA’s failure to consider the benefit of preventing hundreds of pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorcyclist deaths in a pending rulemaking for side underride guards. 

According to a 2014 study by the National Transportation Safety Board, about 120 pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists are killed every year under the sides of tractor trailers. A side underride guard that blocks those vulnerable road users from falling under the tandem wheels of trailers would prevent their deaths.

But a pending NHTSA rulemaking on side underride guards neglected to count a single vulnerable road user’s death in the all-important cost-benefit analysis.

Senator Lujan: Another issue that I care about deeply is ensuring that trucks have side underride guards to prevent cars, pedestrians, and cyclists from being crushed underneath. . . . According to NHTSA, the cost of installing side underride guards exceeds the benefits. Unfortunately, to reach this estimate, NHTSA makes assumptions in their cost benefit analysis that excludes whole categories of preventable deaths of vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

Senator Lujan: I don’t understand that. If it’s going to be studied, it should be studied. And then an answer should result based on whatever the research is.

Senator Lujan: Yes, or no? Will you commit to counting pedestrians and bicyclists as preventable deaths for road users in the cost benefit analysis for any future rulemaking on side underride guards?

Jonathan Morrison: I will work with the economists within NHTSA to make sure that everything appropriate is being considered. I’m not familiar with that particular study.

Well, that would be refreshing. . . to have everything appropriate considered by the federal regulator whose mission it is to reduce roadway injuries and deaths. And that includes underride.

If pedestrian, bicyclist, and motorcyclist deaths had been included in the cost-benefit analysis as they should have been, the annual number of deaths side underride guards could prevent would have been estimated to be at least 137. Under those circumstances, the benefits of regulation would have outweighed or been equal to the costs, and the agency would have mandated side underride guards.

Here’s the clip from the hearing (1:02:02 in the video of the Senate Commerce hearing on July 16, 2025):

Senator Lujan questions NHTSA Administrator nominee Jonathan Morrison on underride

Good News: Stoughton extends IIHS-award-winning underride protection to container shipping

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

Good news on underride protection: IIHS has given the TOUGHGUARD Award for rear impact underride protection on intermodal chassis trailers to Stoughton Trailers — the first trailer manufacturer to earn it and one of the largest chassis manufacturers in North America. Should this lead to speculations about what engineering ingenuity could actually produce — despite industry grumblings about the operational issues regarding underride protection, particularly at the sides of intermodal chassis trailers?

Underride guards that meet the Toughguard criteria are substantially more likely to withstand an impact, reducing the severity of the crash. Until now, only dry van, refrigerated and flatbed trailers have qualified. But with the growing importance of shipping containers in global trade, more and more freight is being transported using intermodal chassis.

Chassis-type trailers present a unique challenge when it comes to underride protection. The frame of a dry van, refrigerated or flatbed trailer extends across its entire wheelbase, supporting the underride guard for its full width. In contrast, an intermodal chassis is a ladderlike structure that lies between the trailer’s wheels to support the removable container.

For that reason, the underride guard required a completely new design. Instead of a vertical support attached to the trailer deck, the chassis guard features long, diagonal supports running from the guard’s outboard ends to the chassis rails. Stoughton Intermodal Chassis Earns Underride Guard Award

I’m grateful for Stoughton Trailers’ continued commitment to safety. Unfortunately, not every trailer manufacturer is equally safety-minded. And NHTSA has not shown an inclination to send a strong message to industry; in fact, they declined to include Stoughton’s dry van RIG solution in their regulatory analysis for a 2022 update of the rear guard rule. Decades of government and industry inaction means that there are still far too many (almost ALL of them) trucks on the road which do not have adequate underride protection.

Engineers know how to creatively solve problems. Give them a green light to SAVE LIVES!

Kaizen and Underride Protection: A New Industry Approach

Uncategorized, , , ,

What is the industry’s approach to underride protection? Is it anything like the Japanese attitude of Kaizen? This blogpost caught my attention:

I am reminded of a Japanese word: Kaizen. I read a book once that discussed the difference between the American mindset and the Japanese mindset – explaining that Kaizen is a Japanese word meaning “improvement or change for the better”. Kaizen is defined as a continuous effort by each and every employee… to ensure that there’s continual improvement. The book suggested the American mindset is to build something, work hard at it, step back, admire it, and then move on. The Kaizen mindset is to continue to improve what was built. . . This isn’t about perfectionism. The perfectionist mindset is fixated on what is wrong. The improvement mindset is fixated on what we can make better.

If that was our mindset in the United States, what might we hope to see in underride protection progress? How many more lives might be saved?

What’s New In Underride?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

There’s nothing new about underride. Despite the fact that it has taken loved ones from us for decades, bringing an end to preventable underride continues to be an uphill battle. We fight on.

Here are some recent instances of underride getting media coverage:

And, by the way, in case you missed it, here are videos from crash testing of collisions between bicyclists and tractor-trailers — conducted by Aaron Kiefer in Raleigh at the North Carolina State Highway Patrol training facility on September 13, 2024. . .

Unguarded (no side guard) VRU Crash Test:

LPD+ Crash Test with Fully-Guarded Trailer:

Here are some posts I’ve written about Lateral Protection Devices+, i.e. side underride guards:

The proof is in the pudding. I rest my case.

Underride in the News

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety

There’s nothing new about underride. Despite the fact that it has taken loved ones from us for decades, bringing an end to preventable underride continues to be an uphill battle. We fight on.

Here are some recent instances of underride getting media coverage:

Will Victims & Survivor Advocates Be Given a Voice at DOT?

Safety Advocacy, , , , , , ,

Senator Lujan and Congressman Cohen recently re-introduced the DOT Victim & Survivor Advocate Act. Much appreciated. But will Congress and the Department of Transportation respond by establishing this vital position within the Office of the Secretary? Is Secretary Duffy truly dedicated to safety?

Read more here: Luján, Cohen Reintroduce Bicameral Legislation to Improve Roadway Safety and Uplift Victim Voices at DOT

Certified Letters Alert Carriers of Underride Dangers, Liability & Solutions

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

The fact that truck and trailer designs can potentially allow underride when there are collisions with passenger vehicles has a long history of being misunderstood. With that in mind, on October 12, 2024, we sent letters to two lists of “100 top carriers” in North America via Certified Mail. We wanted their Boards and CEOs to be aware of the September 2024 $462 million verdict in a product liability lawsuit against a trailer manufacturer for failing to install a protective rear guard, leading to two fatalities — indicating that juries will not accept more of these preventable deaths.

“We hope the decision the jurors reached sends a clear message to the trucking and trailer industry and will finally force them to build safer trailers,” CVN noted, quoting plaintiff co-counsel Brian Winebright https://www.freightwaves.com/news/wabash-national-hit-with-462m-verdict-in-trailer-equipment-case

 We also encouraged trucking companies to take steps to protect road users and their bottom line by making sure that their fleets are equipped with Rear Impact Guards (RIGs) which qualify for the IIHS TOUGHGUARD Award and side impact guards that prevent side underride fatalities.

The mailing list for the 200 companies can be found here.

The Carrier Letter Template can be found here. 

A similar Certified Mail Letter went out to carriers in 2020. Relevant information is posted here.

Further details and copies of delivery receipts can be obtained by contacting marianne@annaleahmary.com.