The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that their mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards, and enforcement. They seem to do a decent job of informing the public with a webpage on driver assistance technologies. However, the NHTSA Truck Underride Page only contains a very short list of studies. This is the extent of entries on that page:

For a century-old problem, there is actually a wealth of research, reports, and recommendations available. As a national traffic safety leader, NHTSA could be a source of all things underride. In fact, by posting a broader set of underride specific information, NHTSA could make use of their website to better inform and inspire all stakeholders at the same time without fear of unfairly communicating with one stakeholder. This would fulfill the first purpose of the Administrative Procedures Act which “requires agencies to keep the public informed and up-to-date on agency activities.”

On September 2, “TEAM Underride” met via Zoom to discuss how we could aid NHTSA in that mission by making recommendations for additions to the NHTSA Truck Underride Page. In an attempt to be helpful, TEAM Underride participants briefly brainstormed ideas for what we thought would be useful to add to the NHTSA Truck Underride webpage, including:

• Link to the underride rulemaking, including Final Rear Impact Guard Rule — Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards; Rear Impact Guards, Rear Impact Protection

• Federal Register announcements for the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP)

• Link to VOLPE side guard resources, including Pedestrian-Bike Side Guards for Trucks: How They Work

• Link to FMCSA study on pedestrians and side guards – Study of Truck Side Guards to Reduce Pedestrian Fatalities

• GAO Truck Underride Report and status of recommendations

• Links to additional underride research, including research conducted under contracts with the USDOT

• Link to IIHS underride research, e.g., 

  • Inside IIHS: Understanding Underride

  • Rear Impact Guard TOUGHGuard Ratings

  • Benefits of side underride guards for semitrailers
  • Side guard on semitrailer prevents underride in 40 mph test

• International underride regulations, e.g., Front Underride Protection, wp29regs, ECE93

• Other relevant studies prepared on the underride issue, including a comprehensive look at the side guard issue, Unguarded and Unsafe: Death by Underride, and a side guard cost benefit analysis by Eric Hein, FINAL Cost Benefit Analysis for Side Underride Guards
• Bibliography of underride research, reports, and recommendations, e.g., History of Underride Research & Reports: 1896 to 2022

That would be a good start. And we’re more than willing to help in whatever way we can to get this resource development underway.