If the Side Underride Problem Makes You Mad, Here Are 5 Ways To Be A Part of the Solution

February 10, 2017Truck Safetyside guards, side underrideMarianne

If you watch the Today Show’s investigative report on truck SIDE UNDERIDE, you will discover that the federal government does not require side guards on large trucks. And trailer manufacturers do not install them on the trailers they produce.

NBC News article: http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/side-underride-crashes-kill-200-people-year-will-congress-act-n711721

That might make you a little bit mad, so here are 5 ways you can put that frustration to work to help bring about change:

+ Sign our Side Guard Petition here to let our government & trucking industry leaders know that you want them to act NOW to SAVE LIVES by putting side guards on large trucks. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/251/762/472/end-deadly-side-underride-crashes-mandate-side-guards-on-large-trucks/

+ Submit a Public Comment to DOT/NHTSA here. https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=NHTSA-2015-0118 After you get to this site, click on the COMMENT NOW button.

+ Write to the 8 major trailer manufacturers.Tell them that you want them to put side guards on the trailers which they produce and sell to trucking companies. You can find their contact information here. https://annaleahmary.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Contact-Information-for-Major-Trailer-Manufacturers-1.pdf

+ Support side guard research projects, which will help get affordable and effective side guards on the market. Donate here. https://www.fortrucksafety.com/

+ Contact your legislators here. https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials

See it here: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=NHTSA-2015-0118-0049 Actually, a second person also submitted a comment.

You can do it, too! SUBMIT a Public Comment to DOT/NHTSA here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=NHTSA-2015-0118 After you get to this site, click on the COMMENT NOW button.

What if trucking industry campaign contributions went toward safety research & implementation instead?

February 8, 2017Truck Safetycampaign contributions, safety research, side guards, truck industry, truck safety research, trucking lobbyMarianne

Yesterday, Ronan Farrow reported that members of of the Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee received $9,187,124 in campaign contributions in the 2016 cycle from the Transportation Sector.

See it for yourself here:

Ronan asked, “Why does it take so long to move the needle on this, when people are dying every year?” See what former head of NHTSA, Joan Claybrook, had to say about that:

What if trucking industry campaign contributions went toward safety research & implementation instead?

How much closer would we be to Zero Truck Crash Fatalities?

The trucking industry needs to answer the same question which Senator Robert Kennedy posed to GM in 1965. I’d like to ask them,

“What was your profit in 2016?”
“And how much money did you spend on safety research in 2016?”

I’d really like to know the answers — not just for 2016 but for many years before as well. Because I’m not willing to compromise. There are too many shattered families, broken hearts, and lives ended far too soon.

Sign the Petition: End Deadly Truck Side Underride Crashes: Mandate Side Guards

Then, SHARE it.

Find out how you can DONATE to Underride Research HERE. Make a difference

Today Show’s Investigation Of Deadly Truck Underride Generates Long-Overdue Nat’l Conversation

February 8, 2017Truck Safety#sideguard, #sideunderrideMarianne

Ronan Farrow started a national conversation this morning about deadly truck side underride with his investigative report on The Today Show:

And here’s the NBC News article from that report: Side Underride Crashes Kill 200 People a Year. Will Congress Act?, by RONAN FARROW, RICH MCHUGH and TRACY CONNOR, 2/7/17

That got the ball rolling. Here are some other mentions of that investigation:

Huffington Post: Remember That Fatal Tesla Crash? Politicians Might Be Partly To Blame.
The Hill: Report: Trucking lobby resisting mandatory safety devices

Join the conversation. Let your voice be heard. Sign the Side Guard Petition: End Deadly Truck Side Underride Crashes: Mandate Side Guards

Side Underride Problem & Solutions Featured on The Today Show

February 7, 2017Truck Safetyside guards, side underride, Vision ZeroMarianne

Ronan Farrow investigated the side underride problem and here is his report on The Today Show, February 7, 2017:

Side Guards: New push to make safety devices on trucks mandatory

NBCNews story on side guards (2/7/17): Side Underride Crashes Kill 200 People a Year. Will Congress Act?

The federal government does not require side guards on large trucks. Trailer manufacturers do not install them on the trailers they produce. Here are 5 ways you can help to change that:

Sign our Side Guard Petition here to let our government & trucking industry leaders know that you want them to act NOW to SAVE LIVES by putting side guards on large trucks.
Write to the 8 major trailer manufacturers. Tell them that you want them to put side guards on the trailers which they make and sell to trucking companies. You can find their contact information here.
Support side guard research projects, which will help get affordable and effective side guards on the market. Donate here.
Contact your legislators here.
Submit a Public Comment to DOT/NHTSA here. After you get to this site, click on the Comment Now button.

Aaron Kiefer’s underride protection devices: ENHANCING TRUCK SAFETY SAVING LIVES

What Will It Take To Convince US That Side Underride KILLS But Side Guards Save Lives?

February 13, 2017 Update: I just received a notification of a new posting to the Federal Register of a Public Comment from someone asking DOT/NHTSA to mandate side guards! I am assuming that someone responded to my request for people to do so to help bring about change. 🙂 See it here: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=NHTSA-2015-0118-0049 Actually, a second person also submitted a comment.

You can do it, too! SUBMIT a Public Comment to DOT/NHTSA here: https://www.regulations.gov/docket?D=NHTSA-2015-0118 After you get to this site, click on the COMMENT NOW button.

Side Guard Petition Signatures & Comments: end-deadly-side-underride-crashes-mandate-side-guards-on-large-trucks_022417

Ways We Can Work Together To End Deadly Truck Underride

February 7, 2017Truck Safetyside guards, side underride, The Today Show, underrideMarianne

Side Underride Kills; Side Guards Save Lives

The federal government does not require side guards on large trucks. Trailer manufacturers do not install them on the trailers they produce. Here are 3 ways you can help to change that:

Write to the 8 major trailer manufacturers. Tell them that you want them to put side guards on the trailers which they make and sell to trucking companies. You can find their contact information here.
Sign our Side Guard Petition here to let our government & trucking industry leaders know that you want them to act NOW to SAVE LIVES by putting side guards on large trucks.
Support side guard research projects, which will help get affordable and effective side guards on the market. Donate here.

Truck Underride will be featured on The Today Show, February 7, at 7:40 a.m.

AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety is Raising Money to Support These Road Safety Projects:

Crash Reconstructionist Aaron Kiefer is developing an innovative combination side/rear underride guard. Help him get it ready to put into the hands of manufacturers. See Aaron’s side guard research here.
Collegiate Engineering Senior Design Competition 2017/18: Support a student competition to creatively solve the side underride problem. Student teams will present their research at the IIHS Vehicle Research Center in the Spring of 2018, and one team’s side guard design will be selected for a crash test. (Last year’s Virginia Tech Senior Design Project presented at the Underride Roundtable.)
We also promote other underride research & solutions which will be discussed at the Second Underride Roundtable on August 29, 2017 at the IIHS, including the AngelWing side underride protection device.

AnnaLeah & Mary for Truck Safety is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is eligible to receive contributions that may be tax deductible for the donor. Your donation will help fund projects that will save lives!

AnnaLeah & Mary’s Story

Underride Guard Facts

Truck Side Underride Investigative Report to be aired on The Today Show, 2/7/17 at 7:40 a.m.

February 6, 2017Truck Safetyside guards, side underrideMarianne

NBC News NY has extensively interviewed multiple individuals and organizations on the issue of deadly truck side underride — including a trip to North Carolina last month to film Aaron Kiefer’s side guard crash test. They are now ready to air the story on Tuesday, February 7, at 7:40 a.m. on The Today Show.

https://twitter.com/RonanFarrow/status/828658344407728128

Why put rear underride protection on trailers but not Single Unit Trucks? Any underride is deadly.

February 6, 2017Truck Safetyside underride, single unit trucks, straight trucks, SUTsMarianne

I ran across a study on underride fatality crashes this morning. I’d read it before but took a lot at it again. +

Then, this afternoon, while in city traffic, I saw an almost-side underride-crash between a car and Single Unit Truck (SUT). And when I arrived at a parking lot later, I saw a wimpy rear underride guard on a SUT.

So, why do we put rear underride guards on trailers but don’t require them on SUTs? (Not even mentioning that the current rear guard requirement is ineffective as written.) And why don’t we require side underride guards on any large trucks?

Truck underride is deadly no matter the truck size or portion of the truck the smaller vehicle rides under.

+ For SUTs, the study showed that, “Considering all degrees of underride, trucks with a guard suffered slightly more underride than trucks with no rear-end protection, 69.5% to 66.7%. . . This result is counter to what would be expected, although it may be due to small, sample sizes and a host of other complicating factors. The severity threshold of the TIFA file may serve to decrease variation in the amount of underride by rear-end structure, since a fatality must occur for the crash to be included in the file. It could be that many of the collisions are beyond the design limits of the guards, and so the guards have no effect.” Underride in rear-end fatal truck crashes, Submitted to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, prepared by Daniel Blower Kenneth L. Campbell, The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, October 1999

In other words, the wimpy guards aren’t effective anyway, so even if a SUT has one, the guard usually doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do — which is to prevent deadly underride.

Current rulemaking on underride protection for SUTs is in limbo at NHTSA: ANPRM Underride Protection of Single Unit Trucks

Do we prize mobility more than safety?

February 5, 2017Safety AdvocacyMarianne

Vision Zero: The Swedish-Inspired Way American Cities Are Trying to End Pedestrian Deaths, As dozens of cities try to emulate Sweden’s success, they’re learning what works and what doesn’t.

What is clear to Pollack, based on her research and safety campaigns she’s helped design in Baltimore and New York City, is that education campaigns won’t be enough on their own. Long-lasting changes depend on changes to the physical roads. “Engineering strategies are really important, because those are sustainable,” she says. “If you educate somebody today, they might move away and then you have to worry about the new people coming in tomorrow. With engineering strategies, such as putting in traffic calming or putting in lights with delays so that pedestrians can cross, those are really sustainable and important.”. . .

“For so many years, mobility was the No. 1 concern for our roadways,” she says, “and safety was not even really even considered. So having that shift in culture, where we prioritize safety over mobility, is something that I’ve learned is going to take a long time to change.” The Swedish-Inspired Way American Cities Are Trying to End Pedestrian Deaths

Does it really have to be either/or? Mobility or safety? I don’t think so.

What will end our indifference to preventable deaths? I know we can figure this out.

I will turn their mourning into joy.

February 4, 2017Uncategorizedbittersweet memories, griefMarianne

Then the virgin shall rejoice in the dance,

And the young men and the old, together;

For I will turn their mourning into joy,

And will comfort them, and give them joy for their sorrow.

Jeremiah 31:13

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,

Because the LORD has anointed me–

To bring good news to the affliccted;

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to captives,

And freedom to prisoners;

To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD,

And the day of vengeance of our God;

To comfort all who mourn,

To grant those who mourn in Zion,

Giving them a garland instead of ashes,

The oil of gladness instead of mourning,

The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.

So they will be called oaks of righteousness,

The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.

Isaiah 61:1-3

Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the lord;

Awake as in the days of old, the generations of long ago.

Was it not Thou who cut Rahab in pieces,

Who pierced the dragon?

Was it not Thou who dried up the sea,

The waters of the great deep;

Who made the depths of the sea a pathway

For the redeemed to cross over?

So the ransomed of the LORD will return,

And come with joyful shouting to Zion;

And everlasting joy will be on their heads.

They will obtain gladness and joy,

And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

Isaiah 51:9-11

Because in our great sorrow we also have great hope for the everlasting joy yet to come, so then we carry on with boldness and strength to tackle the great challenges which lay before us.

Trump’s EO allows for regulations related to “health, safety, financial or national security matters”

February 4, 2017Safety AdvocacyVision Zero rulemakingMarianne

I could be wrong, but if what I just read is true, then President Trump is leaving the way open for regulations which would make us safer on the road.

President Trump issued Friday an order to executive agencies directing them to freeze all new regulations pending further review by Trump and his team. It’s unclear, however, whether this rule will affect any coming trucking regulations, especially since the administration’s memo, circulated by Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, allows for regulations related to “health, safety, financial or national security matters” to continue. http://www.overdriveonline.com/unclear-how-trumps-freeze-on-regs-obamacare-relaxer-will-impact-trucking/

Now all we need is for public health and safety to be given the consideration it needs by means of Vision Zero rulemaking.