Tag Archives: front underride protection

How To Make Crashes With The Front Of A Truck More Survivable

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , ,

Researchers, safety advocates, and underride victim survivors gathered on April 17 to discuss how to make crashes with the front of a truck more survivable. Experts from around the globe shared their expertise and answered questions:

Front Impact Guard Webinar – April 17

Video Coverage of Speaker Presentations:

Presenter Slides & Papers:

Hopefully, the information shared and learned during this discussion will be but the beginning of a collaborative global conversation leading to the reduction of preventable truck crash fatalities — one life at a time.

Posts on Front Underride Protection

Truck Impact Guards = Underride Protection!

Register for April 24 Meeting of Advisory Committee on Underride Protection

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , ,

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced that registration is open for the next meeting of the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP):

  • April 24, 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. ET; Topics: Side Underride and Front Override

Register here to observe via Zoom.

April 24 will be the fifth public meeting of the committee, which was established to provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary of Transportation on safety regulations to reduce underride crashes and fatalities relating to underride crashes.

Front Impact Guard Webinar – April 17

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , ,

What is Front Underride or Override Protection?

Find out by joining this webinar

On April 17, 2024 via Zoom, 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. (Eastern)

AGENDA

  1. Welcome
  2. Current Regulation – Iain Knight, Director & Principal Engineer at Apollo Vehicle Safety, UK
  3. Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) View – Reimert Sjoblom,  Expert Engineer Passive Safety with the Scania Group
  4. Crash Data & Future Needs – Rikard Fredriksson, Senior Advisor at the Swedish Transport Administration, Professor at University of Chalmers, Euro NCAP Board
  5. New Countermeasures & Test Methods – Rob Thomson, Professor of Vehicle Safety at the Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden)
  6. Wrap up with Opportunity for Q&A and Discussion of What This Means for US

If you’d like to know more about front underride protection, join a Zoom presentation/discussion on April 17, 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. (EST). I know it’s going to be early, but we’ll be hearing from FUP experts located in the UK and Sweden. To receive a Zoom link, send your request to: marianne@annaleahmary.com.

What is Front Underride Protection? (Find out on April 17)

Truck Impact Guards = Underride Protection

What is Front Underride Protection? (Find out on April 17)

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

If you’d like to know more about front underride protection, join a Zoom presentation/discussion on April 17, 8:00 – 10:00 a.m. (EST). I know it’s going to be early, but we’ll be hearing from FUP experts located in the UK and Sweden. To receive a Zoom link, send your request to: marianne@annaleahmary.com.

Hear a presentation from international experts on front underride or override protection:
• Iain Knight, Director, Apollo Vehicle Safety, UK
• Rikard Fredriksson, Senior Advisor, Swedish Transport Administration
• Robert Thomson, Professor of Vehicle Safety at Chalmers University of Technology

Join in a discussion, with opportunity to ask questions, about how the UNECE Front Underrun Protection Standard from 1993 and recently published FUP research could save lives on American roads.

If you’re not able to attend, I will be recording it and will convert it to a YouTube video.

What is Front Underride Protection – Save the Date pdf

Posts on Front Underride Protection

Truck Impact Guards = Underride Protection!

In Memory of Joshua Roudebush (February 13, 2024)

Underride Crash Map, , , , ,

A 30-year-old Clearbrook man has died after the car he was driving collided with a semi-truck near Orr, Minnesota, located in Saint Louis County.

The Minnesota State Patrol says Joshua Roudebush was southbound on Highway 53 when his vehicle crossed into the opposite lane and struck the semi head-on. Roudebush was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the semi was not injured. Clearbrook Man Dies in Head-On Crash with Semi in St. Louis County

Because the bottom of a truck is higher than the bumper of passenger vehicles, when there is a collision the smaller vehicle easily slides under the truck and the first point of impact is the windshield. Seatbelts, airbags, and car crumple zones do not function as intended in underride crashes —front, side, and rear — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.

Joshua Roudebush, Precious One Gone Too Soon

Major truck manufacturers have Front Underride Protection designs which can work on American trucks.

AMERICA’S DANGEROUS TRUCKS (PBS/Frontline Underride Documentary)

See Underride Crash Memorials posted here and at #STOPunderrides Tweets. To add photos or more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to be remembered, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com. Please use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form to provide us with accurate information . (Note: the map is currently not online; but we would keep the information for future updating and to aid in underride advocacy efforts.)

How You Can Help

Support improving Underride Protection on trailers: Contact your legislators with this User-Friendly TAKE ACTION online tool.

Please sign this petition: Secretary Pete, It’s Past Time To End Death By Underride!

Note: In order to raise awareness and preserve the memories of underride victims — precious ones gone too soon — I have been writing memorial posts on what could potentially be underride crashes. I am not a crash reconstructionist, and I do not have all the facts on these crashes; but underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.

We are asking that people send us crash reports for collisions with trucks which they suspect involved underride. Send them to marianne@annaleahmary.com. We will submit these as complaints to USDOT. Read more here: Launching a Campaign To Flood NHTSA With Underride Complaint Reports.

In Memory of Cody Prestergord (February 12, 2024)

Underride Crash Map, , , , ,

State Patrol says 17-year-old Cody Prestergord of Gary, Minnesota crashed head-on into a grain hauling semi.

Prestergord died at the scene.

The semi caught fire. Teen Killed In Head-On Crash With Semi Near Ada

Because the bottom of a truck is higher than the bumper of passenger vehicles, when there is a collision the smaller vehicle easily slides under the truck and the first point of impact is the windshield. Seatbelts, airbags, and car crumple zones do not function as intended in underride crashes —front, side, and rear — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.

Cody Prestergord, Precious One Gone Too Soon

Major truck manufacturers have Front Underride Protection designs which can work on American trucks.

AMERICA’S DANGEROUS TRUCKS (PBS/Frontline Underride Documentary)

See Underride Crash Memorials posted here and at #STOPunderrides Tweets. To add photos or more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to be remembered, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com. Please use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form to provide us with accurate information . (Note: the map is currently not online; but we would keep the information for future updating and to aid in underride advocacy efforts.)

How You Can Help

Support improving Underride Protection on trailers: Contact your legislators with this User-Friendly TAKE ACTION online tool.

Please sign this petition: Secretary Pete, It’s Past Time To End Death By Underride!

Note: In order to raise awareness and preserve the memories of underride victims — precious ones gone too soon — I have been writing memorial posts on what could potentially be underride crashes. I am not a crash reconstructionist, and I do not have all the facts on these crashes; but underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.

We are asking that people send us crash reports for collisions with trucks which they suspect involved underride. Send them to marianne@annaleahmary.com. We will submit these as complaints to USDOT. Read more here: Launching a Campaign To Flood NHTSA With Underride Complaint Reports.

In Memory of Chad Lentz (June 9, 2023)

Underride Crash Map, , , , ,

Witnesses reported that the semi-truck was heading north on Merle Hay Road when it hit the curb and then swerved over the median, colliding head-on with the sedan. . .

50-year-old Chad Lentz, the driver of the car, was pronounced dead at the scene. Ankeny man identified as person killed in crash after car hit by semi-truck near Merle Hay Mall

Because the bottom of a truck is higher than the bumper of passenger vehicles, when there is a collision the smaller vehicle easily slides under the truck and the first point of impact is the windshield. Seatbelts, airbags, and car crumple zones do not function as intended in underride crashes —front, side, and rear — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.

Chad Lentz, Precious One Gone Too Soon

See Underride Crash Memorials posted here and at #STOPunderrides Tweets. To add photos or more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to be remembered, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com. Please use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form to provide us with accurate information . (Note: the map is currently not online; but we would keep the information for future updating and to aid in underride advocacy efforts.)

How You Can Help

Support improving Underride Protection on trailers: Contact your legislators with this User-Friendly TAKE ACTION online tool.

Please sign this petition: Secretary Pete, It’s Past Time To End Death By Underride!

Note: In order to raise awareness and preserve the memories of underride victims — precious ones gone too soon — I have been writing memorial posts on what could potentially be underride crashes. I am not a crash reconstructionist, and I do not have all the facts on these crashes; but underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.

We are asking that people send us crash reports for collisions with trucks which they suspect involved underride. Send them to marianne@annaleahmary.com. We will submit these as complaints to USDOT. Read more here: Launching a Campaign To Flood NHTSA With Underride Complaint Reports.

IIHS Research Provides Foundation for Traffic Safety Legislation – Including Underride

Truck Safety, , , , , , , , , ,

This week, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) justifiably pointed out how their amazing safety research has led to much of the bipartisan traffic safety legislation which the Senate and House recently passed — likely to see final confirmation in the coming weeks. Thankfully, this legislation includes underride provisions — for an updated rear guard standard and further research on side underride.

Years of work by IIHS-HLDI paved way for safety provisions in infrastructure bill, August 25, 2021

What the IIHS did not mention was how long it has taken for that legislation to come about — decades. Further, they didn’t stress, as strongly as I would have, how frustrating it is that the IIHS research — coupled with recommendations from the NTSB — still doesn’t seem to be enough to warrant a straight-out mandate for side guards.

On top of that, the IIHS did not mention the missing components of the underride legislation; the infrastructure bill does not include even a hint of research regarding protection of the traveling public from deadly underride under Single Unit Trucks (otherwise known as straight or box trucks) or at the front of large trucks. And we’re talking not only about passenger vehicle occupants but, also, Vulnerable Road Users — pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists. Yet, IIHS and FMCSA have published reports about those safety hazards:

IIHS Status Report, August 26, 1989

If NHTSA is truly data-driven, then shouldn’t the fact that 61% of the two-vehicle truck crash fatalities in 2019 occurred with first impact at the front of large trucks spur significant research into front underride protection? Shouldn’t we at least consider the potential for proven technology — already installed by major international truck manufacturers on their products in other countries — to make truck crashes more survivable?

Will we, instead, continue to ignore the preventable deaths which occur year after year? Perhaps might we, at least, engage in meaningful, collaborative conversation about potential solutions — active and passive — to end these tragedies? Other countries have done so.

Volvo Trucks Safety – FUPS crash test, published 2009
Front Underride Protection Panel
Engineers, Trucking Industry, & Victim Advocates Collaborate at Side Guard Task Force February 2021
Front Underride Protection Presentation at a Congressional Staff Briefing, by Friedman Research Center

What is wrong with US? Dare I hope that we might finally come to our senses and pursue significant change?

Will DOT Respond to Petition for Underride Rulemaking on Single Unit Trucks?

Petition for Underride Rulemaking on Single Unit Trucks (sign here)

Truck Underride Victims & Families Host News Conference for STOP Underrides Act Introduction

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , ,

On Monday, March 8, 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.

If you missed this important event, here are some useful underride links & resources:

Video recording of the News Conference:

It is a well-known fact that underride crashes (and, therefore, underride deaths and injuries) are undercounted. Investigating officers & reporters can help to improve reporting on underride crashes and deaths. Here are some tips, which we’d like you to consider: Truck Crash Investigation Underride Evaluation Checklist (2021)

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. This is what they told us:

A Timeline of Underride:

Underride Victim Photo Memorial Slideshow – the tip of the iceberg:

In Memory of Justin Cook & Raelyn Cook (October 2, 2020)

Underride Crash Map, , ,

Justin Cook, 6, and Raelynn Cook, 5 — were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash, about a mile east of Ind. 3’s intersection with Ind. 18.

The children were passengers in an eastbound pickup truck — driven by their father, Robert A. Cook, 37, Montpelier — that reportedly crossed the center line on the state highway and collided with a westbound semi-tractor trailer.

After the collision, the pickup truck caught on fire. Two children killed in Blackford County crash

Because the bottom of a truck is higher than the bumper of passenger vehicles, when there is a collision the smaller vehicle easily slides under the truck and the first point of impact is the windshield. Seatbelts, airbags, and car crumple zones do not function as intended in underride crashes — leaving passenger vehicle occupants vulnerable to life-threatening injuries.

Justin Cook & Raelyn Cook, Precious Ones Gone Too Soon

See Underride Crash Memorials posted here and at #STOPunderrides Tweets. To add photos or more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to be remembered, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com. Please use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form to provide us with accurate information . (Note: the map is currently not online; but we would keep the information for future updating and to aid in underride advocacy efforts.)

Support improving Underride Protection on trailers: Contact your legislators with this User-Friendly TAKE ACTION online tool.

Please sign this petition: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underrides.

How You Can Help

“Front End, Energy-Absorbing Truck Guards Reduce the Risks for Motorists”, 8/26/89, IIHS Status Report

Note: In order to raise awareness and preserve the memories of underride victims — precious ones gone too soon — I have been writing memorial posts on what appear to me to be underride crashes. I am not a crash reconstructionist, and I do not have all the facts on these crashes; but underride should be investigated as a potential factor in truck crash injuries and deaths.