Podcast of Ask the Trucker BlogTalkRadio: Underride Protection Act of 2017- Truck RearGuards & SideGuards

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , ,

You can listen here to the podcast of the talk show on March 3, 2018, hosted by trucker Allen Smith and his wife Donna — advocates for truckers for over 10 years:

Sat 3-3-18 6 PM ET  

On 12-12-17 U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) & Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Stop Underrides Act, S. 2219 legislation. Then U.S. Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) introduced the companion bill in the House, H.R. 4622

An ‘underride crash’ is when a car slides under the body of a large truck, such as a semi-trailer, during an accident. When these accidents happen, a car’s safety features are not able to protect passengers because most of the car slides under the trailer, and the truck crashes straight through the windows and into the passengers. 

The bill was originally drafted by our guests tonight, Marianne Karth and Lois Durso. Both Marianne and Lois have lost children due to underride crashes. Marianne & husband Jerry lost their 2 daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary in 2013, and Lois lost her daughter Roya in 2004. The bill was originally called the Roya, AnnaLeah and Mary Comprehensive Underride Protection Act of 2017 or the  RAMCUP Act of 2017—now known as STOP Underrides Act.

We’ll discuss solutions which can prevent underride crashes accounting for at least 300+ deaths per year. Show will include discussions regarding rear & sideguards. Few people realize that the 1969 Federal Register recorded that the Department of Transportation intended, after further study, to extend underride protection to the sides of large trucks.

Discussion includes: Costs, added weight, decreased Insurance costs, Loading docks, Axle/Tandems, distracted driving.
For more info stopunderrides@gmail.com  www.StopUnderRides.org

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/truthabouttrucking/2018/03/03/underride-protection-act-of-2017–truck-rearguards-sideguards

“Unknown facts about underride crashes and prevention” featured on Ask The Trucker Radio Talk Show

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

March 3, 2018, on BlogTalkRadio, Ask The Trucker Talk Show hosts, Allen & Donna Smith, talk with Lois Durso, Jerry and Marianne Karth about truck underride and the bill: Underride Protection Act of 2017- Truck RearGuards & SideGuards

and write about it in their blog post: Unknown facts about underride crashes and prevention

Ask the Trucker BlogTalkRadio Rescheduled to Discuss Underride on March 3 at 6 pm (ET)

Truck Safety,

Due to technical difficulties (no calls were going through on this call-in Talk Show), it has been rescheduled to take place on Saturday, March 3 at 6 p.m. (ET)

Looking forward to this opportunity to talk with truckers about the importance of underride protection on their trucks — and how it will benefit them.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/truthabouttrucking/2018/02/24/underride-protection-act-of-2017–truck-rearguards-and-sideguards

Ask the Trucker Radio Talk Show to feature Truck Underride, 2/24/18 at 6 p.m. (ET)

Truck Safety

Ask the Trucker Radio Talk Show Features UNDERRIDE this Saturday 2-24-18 6 PM et “Underride Protection Act of 2017- Truck RearGuards & SideGuards” Learn the facts. Join Us. 347-826-9170

Lois Durso, Jerry Karth, and Marianne Karth will join hosts Allen and Donna Smith, advocates for truckers.

We are grateful for this opportunity to increase awareness of the underride problem and the importance of passing the STOP Underrides Act of 2017.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/truthabouttrucking/2018/02/24/underride-protection-act-of-2017–truck-rearguards-and-sideguards

 

The guard didn’t break off AS the car went under the truck; the car went under BECAUSE the guard broke off!

Truck Safety, , , ,

I have read many news reports of truck crashes. It often strikes me how little the media, along with everyone else, understands the underride problem. Last night I read an article about a truck crash which happened in November in Dallas; it was a good example of this common misunderstanding of what an underride is.

A car was traveling northbound along Harry Hines Boulevard when it started coming up on a UPS truck at the Lombardy Lane stoplight. The 18-wheeler’s 53-foot trailer was empty at the time. However, the car’s driver did not stop and slammed into the back of the big rig. The UPS truck’s rear bumper broke as the car went underneath the trailer.   http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/11/13/car-slams-into-big-rig-dallas/

What the reporter apparently misunderstood was that the rear bumper did not break off as the car went underneath the trailer. No, the car went underneath the trailer because the bumper broke off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was too weak — just like on the majority of the millions of trucks on the road today. Underride tragedies waiting to happen.

At first I was frustrated with the way underride gets reported (or rather does not get reported). But then I realized that this is a perfect example of the common misperception that something about the severity of the crash forces/dynamics itself is what leads to the car knocking off or bending the rear underride guard. In fact, it is the weak guard which gives way, fails, and bends or comes right off the trailer and then there is nothing to stop the car from going into the empty space under the truck.

Or, as Jerry Karth says, to put it another way, “the guard failed to perform as it was designed to do.” (As this IIHS video so thoroughly explains.)

In contrast, see what happens when there is an effective underride protective device to cause the car to bounce off the guard (deflects the crash forces) and allows the car’s crush zone, airbags, and seat belts to work like they were supposed to upon collision.

Improved Rear Underride Guard Crash Test:

Side Guard Crash Test:

The car is damaged, but the passengers are safe:

I hope this helps people to better understand the dynamics of an underride crash.

How much more data do we need to convince us to take action that will STOP Underride tragedies?

Truck Safety,
This is old news. But I just saw it. It is news that will haunt the families involved forever. And it could have been prevented.

 A car was traveling northbound along Harry Hines Boulevard when it started coming up on a UPS truck at the Lombardy Lane stoplight. The 18-wheeler’s 53-foot trailer was empty at the time. However, the car’s driver did not stop and slammed into the back of the big rig. The UPS truck’s rear bumper broke as the car went underneath the trailer.

The reporter didn’t understand. The rear bumper did not break off AS the car went under. The car went under because the bumper broke off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was too weak — just like on the majority of the millions of trucks on the road today. Underride tragedies waiting to happen.


Why do we let this continue to happen year after year? Do we value life so little? How much more data do we need to convince us that we need to take immediate action?

From the Library of AnnaLeah Karth, 1995-2013: She hadn’t read them all yet; Death By #Underride

AnnaLeah and Mary, ,

I wanted to mark AnnaLeah’s books so that they will always be a part of “her library”. Her sister Susanna picked out this bookplate & just finished putting one in each book. Now they are ready to donate.

Her 600-book collection. . . many of them from a used bookstore where she had volunteered. She hadn’t read them all yet. A precious life ended too soon.

Death By #Underride

#stopunderrides

AnnaLeah’s Very-Thorough 30-Category Booklist

In Memory of Eddie D. Phillips

Uncategorized, ,

An Ohio man was killed in a horrific crash with a semi-truck on Saturday afternoon, resulting in the northbound lanes of Interstate 75 being shut down between Exit 41 in London and the Livingston Exit 49.

Eddie D. Phillips, 54, of Cincinnati, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash that occurred near the 46 mile marker. Phillips was the sole occupant of the 2011 Mitsubishi that slammed into the rear of a 2016 Peterbilt. The driver of the semi-truck, 52-year-old Michael S. Tilotta of Houston, Texas, was not injured in the crash. He was stopped in traffic due to another accident just north of the 46 mile marker. Ohio man killed in Interstate crash

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.

1969 Chicago Cubs Baseball a Thing of the Past; Same Year DOT Planned to Require Side Guards on Trucks

Truck Safety, ,

I recently moved into a new house. This morning I passed a box that has yet to be unpacked.  In some past move, I had labeled it “1969 Chicago Cubs Mug” (owned by my diehard Cubs fan husband Jerry).

That caught my attention because, in the last few years, the year 1969 (a fateful Cubs season, now a Thing of the Past) sticks out in my mind as the year that DOT said that they intended to “extend underride protection to the sides” of large trucks.

Well, that would have been wonderful if they had actually done so. But they did not.

Hundreds of people every year could have survived truck crashes. If we estimate 200 people each year, who could still be alive had side guards been required on every truck, times the 49 years since that fateful 1969 baseball season, that would be 9,800 people — almost 10,000 deaths that could have been prevented.

Add to that another 800/year from front and rear underride deaths = 39,200. Almost 50,000 deaths could have been prevented with comprehensive underride protection.

Let’s all work together to make sure that, in the next 49 years, it will be a different story and Death By Underride will become a Thing of the Past.

Previous related post: March Historically a Momentous Month for Truck Underride Safety Advocacy; Beware the Ides of March!

What is wrong with this analysis of a fatal truck crash?

Truck Safety

On July 27, 2017, three teens were killed when their car went under a truck in the state of Washington.  A report was published last week with a detective’s analysis of what led to their deaths. His conclusion bothered me because it represents the common misunderstanding of what causes people to die in truck crashes.

See if you can figure out what is missing in his analysis of this horrific truck crash.

Read the report from the lead detective below:

“There are several key factors involved in this collision that resulted in the death of three teenagers. . . Given the estimated speed of the driver’s vehicle it is unknown whether or not the rear bumper would have been able to withstand the impact to prevent an under-ride of the semi-trailer.

Driver had THC in system when car slammed into parked semi, killing 3 teens

 

 

When I see underride tragedies which involve a parked truck, I often wonder if the car driver was confused by the truck’s location and made the unconscious assumption that the road went that way and they would be following another vehicle in front of them by steering their car in that direction. This study/article addresses the visual challenges involved in split-second driving decisions: http://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/underride.html

Even if the car was going 35 mph and there had been a rear underride guard (designed to meet the current federal standard), the car would have gone under the truck. And in another crash earlier that year, a man rear-ended a truck which had an improved rear underride guard at perhaps 50 mph and survived!