Basic Underride Information

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety

This post provides basic underride information, as well as a running list of recent relevant posts.

  1. Petition: STOP Senseless Roadway Deaths: Give Victims a Voice
  2. Petition: Secretary Pete, It’s Past Time To End Death By Underride!
  3. Underride Crash Memorials These are posts in memory of a few of the thousands of underride victims. The tip of the iceberg of senseless, preventable deaths. I will slowly be adding more.
  4. Important Videos: Basics of Underride; Front Underride Protection crash test; Side Guard crash test; Rear Guard crash test; Rear Retrofit crash test; Safetyskirt SIG.R Crash Test 2023, 35 mph T-Bone Behind Axles; SafetySkirt Crash Testing Videos; Unguarded Crash Test 2023, 37.5 mph, 45 Degree Angle Crash
  5. STOP Underrides! YouTube Channel Truck Underride Video Playlist
  6. $462M Jury Verdict Over Rear Impact Guard Design
  7. What Don’t They Want to See? DOT Declines to Send Observer to Underride Crash Test… AGAIN!
  8. Industry Response to ACUP Report; Enough of the Bellyaching Already!
  9. NHTSA Defends Itself to Congress – Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda
  10. Advisory Committee on Underride Protection Reports to Congress & DOT Secretary
  11. DOT Victim & Survivor Advocate Act Introduced To Give Victims A Voice
  12. Senior Agency Officials Suppressed Side Guard Research — Impacting Regulatory Analysis
  13. Underride Crash Memorials
  14. Advisory Committee on Underride Protection, April 24, 2024 Meeting Record
  15. Advisory Committee on Underride Protection, April 24 Meeting Video Playlist
  16. How To Make Crashes With The Front Of A Truck More Survivable
  17. Register for April 24 Meeting of Advisory Committee on Underride Protection
  18. Advisory Committee on Underride Protection, February 8, 2024 Meeting Record
  19. Front Impact Guard Webinar – April 17
  20. Truck Impact Guards = Underride Protection
  21. Upcoming Underride Advisory Committee Meeting Schedule
  22. Underride Made #1 on ‘FRONTLINE Dispatch’ Podcast Episodes of 2023
  23. Unsung Underride Prevention Heroes
  24. My Reactions to Comments on Inside Edition Underride Investigative Report
  25. Weak Rear Underride Guards Are Still Killing People
  26. Video of Speakers at Underride Victim Vigil
  27. A Record of Those Remembered in the Underride Victim Vigil
  28. Media Coverage of DC Underride Victim Vigil & Press Conference
  29. A day in the life of an underride crash test crew; A Photographer’s Perspective
  30. Underride Victim Vigil & Press Conference on DOT Steps in DC
  31. Simply Mary. . . August 6, 1999 – May 8, 2013
  32. Video from STOP Underrides Crash Test Event
  33. Public Comments on the Side Guard ANPRM (Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking)
  34. Still Time to Submit a Public Comment on Side Guard Rule (July 20)
  35. STOP Senseless Roadway Deaths: Give Victims a Voice
  36. So, what did you think of the PBS/Frontline Underride Documentary?
  37. PBS/Frontline Underride Documentary & Petition to Secretary Pete
  38. Commemorative Bell for Roadway Safety Victims
  39. Taking On a Safety Issue: Hazardous Railroad Crossings
  40. Upcoming PBS/Frontline Documentary: “America’s Dangerous Trucks”
  41. Global Underride Discussion
  42. 10 years after trucking crash killed 2 girls, mother sees hope for change
  43. May 4, 2013 seems like just yesterday; has anything changed?
  44. What Do Baseball & Truck Underride Have In Common?
  45. FARS Coding of a Sample of Rear Underride Crashes
  46. LPD+ Saves Lives; But what’s an LPD+?
  47. STOP Underrides Crash Test Tour
  48. “Economism Is Out Of Control” In Life & Death Regulatory Analysis
  49. Remembering AnnaLeah & Mary
  50. Someday, Seeing Side Guards & Strong Rear Underride Guards Will No Longer Surprise Me
  51. Successful Side Guard Crash Test in Raleigh
  52. NHTSA Failing To Educate Stakeholders On Underride
  53. Side Guard Cost Benefit Analysis Presentation to TEAM Underride
  54. Update on Underride Protection Progress
  55. Side Guard Cost Benefit Analysis
  56. Launching a Campaign To Flood NHTSA With Underride Complaint Reports
  57. “A Safety Rule, A Fatal Flaw”; Industry Discussed Underride Rules in 2000
  58. Another Side Guard On The Road
  59. Too Many Lives Forever Changed
  60. Cohen, Gillibrand Call on DOT to Act Expeditiously & Implement Provisions from Their Stop Underrides Act Included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package
  61. Five Years Have Passed Since the Historic IIHS Side Guard Crash Test
  62. Back of the Envelope Math: How many side underride deaths since March 19, 1969?
  63. 53 Years or 19,358 days
  64. When it comes to underride, where do you stand?
  65. DOT Announced A National Roadway Safety Strategy; Now It’s Time To Talk About What That Means
  66. Timeline Of Research & Collaborative Efforts To Create A Consensus Side Guard Standard
  67. Can the Insurance Industry Help End the Unfair Fight of Truck Underride Tragedies?
  68. Why are we working so hard to get weak rear underride guards replaced?
  69. @SecretaryPete, Will you fix flawed underride analysis or let deaths continue?
  70. Families glad new infrastructure law will address underride crashes, WRTV, November 18, 2021
  71. First responders train to save lives during underride crashes, WRTV, November 23, 2021
  72. Raleigh Mom: Infrastructure Bill Will Prevent Crashes Like the One That Killed My Girls , Raleigh News&Observer, November 18, 2021
  73. Rear impact guard now part of annual truck inspection, CCJ, November 15, 2021
  74. FMCSA Issues Final Rule: Rear Underride Guards To Be Part Of Annual Inspections, November 20, 2021
  75. Thoughts on Landmark Underride Legislation
  76. AAJ Supports Trailer Safety Recall Petition: “NHTSA is well within its authority to issue a recall”
  77. Unguarded & Unsafe: Death By Underride by Eric Hein, July 15, 2021
  78. STOP Underrides Petition can be found here.
  79. A Timeline of Underride Safety
  80. Certified Letters Alert 200 Carriers of Underride Dangers & Solutions
  81. History of Underride Research & Reports: 1896-2019
  82. Petition for NHTSA To Recall Semitrailers Due To Lack Of Side Underride Guards
  83. Will DOT Respond to Petition for Underride Rulemaking on Single Unit Trucks?
  84. Side Guard Costs Likely To Decrease With Higher Deployment Volumes
  85. Protecting Passenger Vehicles from Side Underride with Heavy Trucks More research on side underride has just been published by SAE International following a presentation by Garrett Mattos of the Friedman Research Center at a SAE Conference. Hopefully, the Department of Transportation now has enough research to make good on their March 19, 1969 intention to add underride protection to the sides of large vehicles.
  86. IIHS Research Provides Foundation for Traffic Safety Legislation – Including Underride
  87. What will it take to get UNDERRIDE on DOT Regulatory Agenda? We’ve been waiting 52+ years for DOT to move forward with side guards on large trucks — not to mention improving rear guard regulations and adding front underride protection. After numerous petitions, comprehensive underride rulemaking still has not made it the onto the DOT Unified Regulatory Agenda.
  88. Collaborative Discussion of Side Guard Challenges on Specialty Trucks I was very pleased with the collaborative discussion which took place via Zoom on Monday, March 29, 2021, regarding the challenges of adding side guard safety technology to specialty trucks. Participants included primarily engineers and small companies who have been working on researching, designing, and/or marketing solutions to the underride problem. The meeting was also quietly observed by families of underride victims and administrative officials from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).
  89. The March Madness of Competing Traffic Safety Interests What is it like to compete for the attention of government leaders in order to get traction on the traffic safety problem which took your loved one’s life? Envision a press conference on a hot topic where a cacophony of reporters can be heard shouting out — vying for the opportunity to have their question be the one that gets answered.
  90. Time for a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman Almost five years ago, after delivering a Vision Zero Petition to leaders in Washington, D.C., I realized that we need something more than a White House Vision Zero Task Force and a National Vision Zero Goal. We need a National Traffic Safety Ombudsman to be at the helm of a nationwide network of community traffic safety advocates. Someone who will have a place at the federal table — with the authority to take ongoing action on behalf of vulnerable victims of vehicle violence.
  91. Will NHTSA & NTSB Address Side Underride Factor In Latest Tesla Crash Investigation? I have again requested that NHTSA and NTSB address the side underride factor in their investigation of yet another Tesla side underride crash.
  92. Truck Underride Victims & Families Host News Conference for STOP Underrides Act Introduction On Monday, March 8, 2021, truck crash victims’ families hosted a news conference to discuss their stories and the recent introduction of the STOP Underrides Act of 2021 — on March 4, 2021 in the Senate and March 8 in the House.
  93. Engineers, Trucking Industry, & Victim Advocates Collaborate at Side Guard Task Force On a Friday afternoon — February 26, 2021 — over 50 people met via Zoom to discuss comprehensive underride protection. The purpose of the meeting was to report on progress which has been made by several subcommittees since an earlier meeting in 2020 — including Industry Engagement, Research, and Engineering Subcommittees.
  94. Should we be concerned about side guards getting hung up on railroad tracks? I keep hearing members of the trucking industry bring up the possibility of side guards on trailers getting hung-up on railroad tracks. They point to it as a reason to not require side guards on all new trucks. Is that a valid concern? And where is their documentation?
  95. Transport Companies Provide Feedback on Side Guard Operational Issues We know that the trucking industry has expressed concern about potential operational issues which could occur when side guards are installed on large trucks. In order to address those concerns, we asked several trucking companies to give us feedback about their experience after installing side guards on their tractor-trailers.
  96. Consensus Side Guard Standard On April 17, 2020, over 40 people participated in a virtual meeting of a volunteer Underride Protection Committee’s “Side Guard Task Force.” This included two engineers from trailer manufacturers. As a follow-up, several subcommittees began to hold virtual meetings, including an Underride Engineering Subcommittee.
  97. Utility Trailers Encourages Retrofit of Rear Impact Guards To Prevent Underride Last evening, I received some amazing news! Utility Trailer Manufacturing has announced that their improved Rear Impact Guard (RIG) will be offered at a discount.
  98. FMCSA Proposed Rule For Inspection of Rear Underride Guards A red letter day: The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) at long last has proposed a rule to add rear underride guards to Appendix G. What does that mean? It means that rear underride guards will be required to be in good condition in order to pass an annual vehicle inspection. Once the rule is actually issued.
  99. “Chattanoga crash that killed 5 underscores bill to add protective barriers to semi trucks”
  100. Retrofit Solutions for Rear Impact Guards to Prevent Deadly Underride It is to their credit that nine U.S. trailer manufacturers have improved their rear underride guard design to meet the IIHS TOUGHGuard standard and seven of them are putting it on all new trailers as Standard. What that means is that they have surpassed the current federal standard and have been crash tested to show that they are more likely to prevent underride and catastrophic Passenger Compartment Intrusion (PCI) — thereby more likely to save lives when passenger vehicles rear end tractor-trailers.
  101. Save Lives by Lighting up Tractor-Trailers & Tanker Trucks Truck drivers can play an important role in making sure that the trailers which they haul are as visible as possible to other drivers on the road — especially at nighttime. On October 15, 2018, Leslie and Sophie Rosenberg lost their lives when they collided with the side of a tanker late at night.
  102. Truck Driver Mistakes Don’t Excuse Industry & Government Negligence To Solve Underride Problem Thanksgiving Eve, another apparent underride victim lost her life: Though the truck driver may have made a mistake, not all the blame rests with him for a crash which might have had a different outcome with effective underride protection. Carriers, trailer manufacturers, DOT, & Congress can make these kinds of truck crashes more survivable.
  103. A fully-guarded trailer hits the road – ready to STOP underride! Engineering ingenuity and a lot of hard work went into the research, development, and installation of this fully-guarded trailer system. This week, a small carrier in North Carolina became part of our pilot program. We are thankful that they have agreed to provide us feedback on this #SaferTruck as they drive it on the road to carry out their transport business.
  104. On August 19, we hosted another Underride Staff Briefing — this time via Zoom. We are providing Congressional Offices with the PowerPoint pdf from that presentation, including comments from engineers with expertise in underride as well as underride families: Underride Briefing PowerPoint pdf (inc. links to resources & video)
  105. Crash Tests of Rear Underride Guard Reinforcement Attachments, 2016 & 2020
  106. Media Reports & Video Footage Unveil Highlights of the Successful D.C. Underride Crash Test Event Read more here.
  107. Comparison Chart of Underride Provisions in Various Bills
  108. A quick look at some of the more recent efforts to STOP underride tragedies: Update on Underride News
  109. SOCIAL MEDIA: #STOPunderrides Tweets & Facebook Pages: STOP Underrides Act of 2019 and Save Lives/Stop Underrides., AnnaLeah&MaryforTruckSafety , stopunderrides.org
  110. Underride Crash Memorials These are posts in memory of a few of the thousands of underride victims. The tip of the iceberg of senseless, preventable deaths. I will slowly be adding more.

RAMCUP. Roya, AnnaLeah & Mary Comprehensive Underride Protection. They paid the price:

Cohen, Gillibrand Call on DOT to Act Expeditiously & Implement Provisions from Their Stop Underrides Act Included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , ,

The American people, whether they know it or not, have already waited too long for DOT to take decisive action to stop underride tragedies. That’s why it’s encouraging to see Congress putting DOT on notice to move forward with the Underride Mandate. Yesterday, they sent a letter to Secretary Buttigieg:

Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand led 25 of their colleagues in a letter urging Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Pete Buttigieg to swiftly execute the provisions from their Stop Underrides Act, which passed in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. press release

The letter encourages DOT to act swiftly to release the Final Rear Underride Guard rule with IIHS TOUGHGuard strength and issue an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) in order to allow the Public to comment on side guards, as well as urging them to, “expeditiously establish the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection and to complete the life-saving side guard research which we hope will lead to a proposed rule on side guards. Together these provisions will help save lives and aim to prevent passenger compartment intrusion from crashes with trucks.”

Senator Gillibrand summarized it well, “Every day we don’t act, we are losing an opportunity to save the lives of innocent Americans.”

Read the Press Release here.

Read the DOT Underrides Implementation Letter here.

Five Years Have Passed Since the Historic IIHS Side Guard Crash Test

Truck Safety, , , , ,

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) conducted an important crash test on March 30, 2017. They crashed a car at 35 mph into the side of a trailer equipped with AngelWing side guards. This crash test was later repeated successfully at 40 mph at the Second Underride Roundtable on August 29, 2017. It was official. Deadly side underride tragedies could be prevented.

What seemed perhaps even more significant was the fact that the following day, March 31, 2017, the IIHS conducted a second crash test into the side of a trailer — only this time, there was no side guard. The stark contrast of the two crashes was captured on film for all to see. Who could argue the benefit of this feasible feat of engineering technology?

Apparently it has not been enough to convince everyone, as we are still struggling to bring this uphill battle to an end five years later. Pray that Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation, who is tasked by Congress with making a determination this year, will conclude that saving lives is worth the cost to require trailer manufacturers to equip new trailers with side guards. Otherwise, the inaction of industry and government will allow the senseless, violent slaughter of unprotected road users to continue day after day, year after year — while engineering solutions sit on the shelf gathering dust.

Back of the Envelope Math: How many side underride deaths since March 19, 1969?

Guided Tour of the Truck Underride Exhibit at the IIHS:

Back of the Envelope Math: How many side underride deaths since March 19, 1969?

Truck Safety, , , ,

If you had to guess how many people have died from truck underride, or more specifically from side underride, since DOT talked about side guards on March 19, 1969, what would you say? Well, nobody can say for sure, but I did some Back of the Envelope Math today — using the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) undercounted underride death data.

Here’s what I came up with: Back of the Envelope Math — Estimated Underride Deaths 3/19/69 – 3/19/22

Why would we equip some trucks to prevent rear underride but not side or front? And why not equip ALL large trucks with available underride prevention technology?

It might not be exact, but it certainly is revealing.

53 Years or 19,358 days

Truck Safety, , , , ,

Fifty-three years ago, the Department of Transportation published their intention to add underride protection to the sides of large vehicles after the completion of technical studies. That was on March 19, 1969. In less than a week, 19,358 days will have passed. Surely there’s been enough time to complete research on this long-overdue rulemaking.

So I’m thinking that it isn’t unreasonable to expect NHTSA to make the Underride Initiative a high priority — especially since President Biden signed a bill on November 15, 2021, which included a requirement for the Secretary of Transportation to complete side guard research within a year and then to make a determination as to whether a side guard regulation is warranted.

It might even be a good idea for NHTSA to issue a Request for Comments (RFC) right away — to give the Public a chance to comment on the costs and benefits of adding side underride protection to large trucks. Shouldn’t Secretary Buttigieg want access to as much information as possible when he makes his decision by November 15, 2022? It is, after all, a matter of life & death.

“In both tests, a midsize car struck the center of a 53-­foot-­long dry van trailer. In the AngelWing test, the underride guard bent but didn’t allow the car to go underneath the trailer, so the car’s airbags and safety belt could properly restrain the test dummy in the driver seat. In the test with no underride guard for protection, the car ran into the trailer and kept going. The impact sheared off part of the roof, and the sedan became wedged beneath the trailer. In a real-­world crash like this, any occupants in the car would likely sustain fatal injuries.“ March 2017 IIHS Side Crash Tests at 35 mph; 8/29/17 40 mph crash test

Underride Victim Photo Memorial: The Tip of the Iceberg

How many people have died from side underride in 19,358 days?

When it comes to underride, where do you stand?

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

When it comes to underride, as far as I can tell, there are at least four groups of people:

  • People unaware of underride.
  • People aware of underride who are taking action to try and end it or are supportive of efforts to do so.
  • People aware of underride who might want to act but whose hands are tied so they look the other way.
  • People aware of underride who are actively opposing solutions.

What group are you in? Are you comfortable with where you’re at?

DOT Announced A National Roadway Safety Strategy; Now It’s Time To Talk About What That Means

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

I’m grateful that the U.S. Department of Transportation announced their National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS) on January 27, 2022. Like others, I’ve waited a long time to hear that news.

  • “We cannot tolerate the continuing crisis of roadway deaths in America. These deaths are preventable, and that’s why we’re launching the National Roadway Safety Strategy today – a bold, comprehensive plan, with significant new funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We will work with every level of government and industry to deliver results, because every driver, passenger, and pedestrian should be certain that they’re going to arrive at their destination safely, every time.” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg Announces Comprehensive National Roadway Safety Strategy, January 27, 2022
  • While U.S. DOT has many tools at its disposal and will shoulder our
    responsibility, this must be a coordinated effort with our stakeholders across the public sector, private sector, advocacy, and research communities. National Roadway Safety Strategy, USDOT, January 2022

On the other hand, I heard strikingly similar rhetoric when Secretary Foxx spoke about the Toward Zero Deaths initiative in March 2015, as well as when NHTSA launched the Road to Zero Coalition in partnership with the National Safety Council on October 5, 2016 (more than a year after we launched our Vision Zero Petition). Here are some relevant quotes:

Deja vu. And what has changed? In any case, here we are. So let’s talk about how the NRSS could be applied to a specific traffic safety issue — truck underride. One Safe System principle included in the NRSS is Redundancy:

  • Redundancy is Crucial. Reducing risks requires that all parts of the transportation system be strengthened, so that if one part fails, the other parts still protect people.
  • The Safe System Approach emphasizes that redundancy is critical, and safer roadways mean incorporating design elements that offer layers of protection to prevent crashes from occurring and mitigate harm when they do occur.

This sounds exactly like the combination of crash avoidance technologies (along with improving driver behavior) to prevent crashes from happening, plus underride protection to reduce injuries when crashes do occur. In fact, I’ve previously written about that very topic:

The reality is that crash avoidance technologies cannot prevent all crashes. Even though crash avoidance technologies may be able to reduce speed at impact, they doesn’t necessarily prevent a collision from happening in every instance. In fact, when collisions do occur between a passenger vehicle and a large truck — even at 15 mph — they will likely result in deadly underride and Passenger Compartment Intrusion unless effective underride protection has been installed on the truck. 

The NRSS uses the word zero 16 times, including here:

  • Zero is the only acceptable number of deaths on our highways, roads, and streets. The United States Department of Transportation is committed to taking substantial, comprehensive action to significantly reduce serious and fatal injuries on the Nation’s roadways.
  • U.S. DOT recognizes the Safe System Approach as encompassing all the roadway safety interventions required to achieve the goal of zero fatalities, including safety programs focused on infrastructure, human behavior, responsible oversight of the vehicle and transportation industry, and emergency response.

Therefore, I will expectantly draw the conclusion that the redundancy principle and the goal of zero fatalities will spur the US DOT to carry out their responsibility to oversee the transportation industry and thereby issue comprehensive underride protection rulemaking — front, side, & rear, on both tractor-trailers and Single Unit Trucks. To do otherwise is hypocrisy.

Will it be necessary for me to continue to ask the question: Is every death unacceptable? Were my daughters’ lives considered worth saving — along with countless other victims of Death By Underride? Is #ZeroTrafficDeaths meaningless rhetoric? Or, is it possible that I can count on the Department of Transportation to prioritize the saving of lives by issuing comprehensive underride rulemaking in which cost benefit analysis is no longer weighted in favor of industry?

Likewise, can I expect when NHTSA is informed of potential safety defects that they will proceed with formal investigations  — no matter how many deaths and serious injuries have been reported?

Underride Crash Victim Memorial Posts

Timeline Of Research & Collaborative Efforts To Create A Consensus Side Guard Standard

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, ,

As I contemplated the work ahead of the Department of Transportation and the trucking industry to advance side underride protection, I realized that the lack of a standard for side guards could be a problem. Actually, that is why we gathered together a group of engineers in 2020 to tackle the development of a Consensus Side Guard Standard. But there is a history to the decades-long effort that led up to this which I feel is important to document here:

Timeline of Research & Reports to Develop a Consensus Side Guard Standard

This is a Timeline of activities leading up to the development of a Consensus Side Guard Standard. It provides a detailed overview of the multiple individuals and organizations who have contributed to raising awareness, researching, and collaborating to create a standard which the government can require and the industry can adopt to bring an end to preventable side underride tragedies.

My hope is that this resource will be reviewed, studied, and turned to as the Underride Initiative moves forward in the coming year. Let’s not reinvent the wheel but rather — with a sense of urgency — let’s build upon the work which has gone before us.

This timeline is not an exhaustive record of all the people who have played a part in advancing underride awareness, research, and protection. There are many people not mentioned here with whom I’ve crossed paths and many who worked on this problem long before I ever became aware of it. Much of that is chronicled in the thousands of posts written on this website.

They are all part of a nationwide, in fact international, Underride Initiative. Thank you, TEAM Underride, for your hard work and dedication to this cause.

We are so thankful for the many people who have contributed over the years to developing effective underride protection. This video was created in gratitude for their hard work. It provides only a brief glimpse and leaves out many people who should rightly be included in this Underride Hero Hall of Fame. Credit goes to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety for their tour guide’s description of the IIHS underride crash testing efforts at their Ruckersville, Virginia, research & testing facility.

Can the Insurance Industry Help End the Unfair Fight of Truck Underride Tragedies?

AnnaLeah and Mary, Safety Advocacy, , , , , , ,

Today is #MLKDay. Mary loved that day because it was a special holiday which she liked to think was in honor of her — Mary Lydia Karth. And Mary loved holidays. Unfortunately, her life was abruptly ended after only fourteen celebrations of that holiday. It was “an unfair fight” on May 4, 2013 — our car against a tractor-trailer with a too-weak rear underride guard.

Karth crash scene, May 4, 2013

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies (NAMIC) recently wrote about our story, our advocacy, and that Unfair Fight which has already claimed too many lives and continues to do so nearly every day:

An Unfair Fight – Winter 2021 IN magazine

We’re hoping that insurance companies will catch the vision that they, too, can play an important role in advancing underride protection by providing financial incentives for installing the best possible protection. Let’s end this unfair fight and STOP Underrides!

@SecretaryPete, Will you fix flawed underride analysis or let deaths continue?

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

In 2020, I became aware of further proof that underride regulatory analysis was both flawed and non-transparent. For some reason, in 2017, the FMCSA contracted with the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to carry out a Study of Truck Side Guards to Reduce Pedestrian Fatalities. Originally the study goals were listed on the website like this:

Five key tasks are included in this project: (1) study interaction of a potential side guard with other truck parts and accessories (e.g., fuel tanks, fire extinguisher, exhaust system) and the implications for a new Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation; (2) investigate applicable international side guard standards; (3) perform a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of truck side guard deployment; (4) propose recommendations; and (5) propose means for voluntary adoption.“  

When I found out that there were no plans to publish the completed study results, I made multiple inquiries at DOT and Congress. Some months later, after Departmental multimodal review, the results were whittled down to a literature review and finally published here:

A Literature Review of Lateral Protection Devices on Trucks Intended for Reducing Pedestrian and Cyclist Fatalities

When I realized that the majority of the report was missing, I submitted a FOIA Request asking for a copy of the entire report but was denied due to Exemption 5:

Exemption 5 protects the integrity of the deliberative or policy-making processes within the agency by exempting from mandatory disclosure opinion, conclusions, and recommendations included within inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters. Exemption 5 also exempts from disclosure draft documents and recommendations or other documents that reflect the personal opinion of the author rather than official agency position.  Finally, Exemption 5 exempts from disclosure deliberative records that may cause public confusion where the information were not the basis for an agency’s action or final report .

Any reasonable person could look at the conclusions from the published study and compare the data to the literature referenced and realize that there were problems. Here’s a fact sheet outlining the apparent flaws in the report published by FMCSA in May 2020:

Fact Sheet on FMCSA Side Guard (LPD) Report

A flawed conclusion and inconsistent crash analysis cut the apparent Vulnerable Road User safety benefit of side guards by approximately half.

This is bad. This is wrong. In the first place, the error leads to a flawed cost benefit analysis for underride rulemaking. In the second place, even the undercounted underride deaths for Vulnerable Road Users (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists) – to the best of my knowledge – have not been included with data on underride deaths in prior NHTSA underride regulatory analysis. Really flawed cost benefit analysis.

Logic says that a flawed cost benefit analysis will lead to a faulty conclusion. The conclusion from multiple underride rulemaking efforts in the past has been that a regulation is not cost effective. In other words, those lives which could have been saved by underride regulations were not deemed worth the cost.

And, by the way, what exactly was the rationale behind leaving out information from the original study? What was DOT concerned about revealing? Would it have actually justified a side guard regulation, which would, of course, have not been looked on very favorably by many in the trucking industry? Would the study have provided a broader look at additional advantages of side guards, including their ability to increase aerodynamic fuel savings, spray reduction, wind stability, GHG reduction, or other accompanying side guard benefits?

As far as I can tell, NHTSA’s faulty analysis has resulted in “guidance” to the industry which effectively turned a blind eye to the fact that trucks with a dangerous design indisputably allow cars and Vulnerable Road Users to go under trucks and sentence thousands of road users to Death By Underride.

Quote is from Ride for Sylvia – Cleveland – 2020

To compound the problem, at least in recent years, underride rulemaking has been assigned to the Crashworthiness Standards division of NHTSA in the USDOT. In my opinion, that is not a good fit. The majority of rulemaking done by NHTSA has to do with the auto industry, whereas FMCSA is the agency charged with motor carrier safety.

Furthermore, underride protection doesn’t fit the definition of crashworthiness, namely, “the ability of a car or other vehicle to withstand a collision or crash with minimal bodily injury to its occupants.“ Underride protection is installed on trucks but does not protect truck occupants. So the trucking industry gets away with claiming they’re not responsible to take care of the problem. And it isn’t a feature of the car whose occupants need to be protected, so the automakers don’t have any responsibility. Consequently, underride protection doesn’t truly fit into the current NHTSA division of responsibilities as far as  I can tell. The result: on top of industry opposition, underride rulemaking seems doomed because, organizationally, it falls between the cracks.

It appears to me that this complex issue would be better suited as a multimodal collaborative project under the coordination of the Office of the Secretary rather than buried at NHTSA without suitable input from other agencies and the yet-to-be-established Advisory Committee On Underride Protection. Maybe then the Underride Initiative would get the priority status it requires and All Road Users would finally be protected from Death By Underride.

Oh, look, DOT just published their priority Innovation Principles, including this one:

The Department should identify opportunities for interoperability among innovations and foster cross-modal integration. In addition, DOT’s posture must remain nimble, with a commitment to support technologies that further our policy goals.

Will the U.S. DOT let the flawed analysis stand? Or will the coming year see significant progress in underride rulemaking? Secretary Pete, the final determination will be in your hands. Will you decide that comprehensive underride protection is warranted?