Tag Archives: GAO Truck Underride Report

Congressman Price Questions Secretary Chao About DOT’s Plan To Address GAO Truck Underride Recommendations

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , ,

What is DOT going to do about deadly truck underride? That is the question.

On February 27, 2020, at an Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing on DOT’s 2021 Budget Request, Congressman David Price (D-NC) asked Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao about DOT’s plans to address the GAO truck underride recommendations. Here’s her reply:

“We actually just talked about this just yesterday. So this is a priority. We understand it. We do have a timeline & we want to get that to you.”   @SecElaineChao

I’m looking forward to seeing DOT’s timeline for addressing GAO Truck Underride Recommendations. I’m hoping that it will reflect a decision to make underride a priority. After all, rear underride regulations have not been updated since 1996, we’ve been waiting for DOT to act on side underride regulations for fifty-one years, and there’s been radio silence on front underride/override.

And it may well be more as underride deaths are vastly undercounted.

Underride can happen to anyone at any time anywhere.

Summary & Comments on the GAO Truck Underride Report

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

This brochure summarizes the findings and recommendations of the Government Accountability Office Truck Underride Guards Report:

GAO Truck Underride Report Brochure

Meanwhile, people continue to die from underride crashes at the front, side, and rear of trucks, while viable and practical technology exists or could quickly be available to install on trucks to save lives — if Congress would only say the word.

It would have been helpful if either the trucking industry stakeholders, NHTSA, or the GAO team would have spelled out precisely what they mean by “effectiveness” of side guards. What more are they looking for to prove that they are effective than the crash testing which has been conducted at IIHS (on March 30 & 31, 2017) and at the DC Underride Crash Test (on March 26, 2019)?

NHTSA has not yet done anything with the side underride research they have already completed. What guarantee do we have that they will do anything with further research unless mandated to do so?

It seems clear to me that the 219 annual underride deaths already-documented warrant the development of standards for implementation of comprehensive underride protection as outlined in the STOP Underrides! Bill. However, DOT has demonstrated that they have no intention of issuing rulemaking without a mandate which would force them to do so.

It will take an Act of Congress to make this happen.

Marianne Karth, May 12, 2019

It’s going to take an act of Congress to end underride once and for all.

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , ,

Congress needs to wake up and understand that NHTSA has not responded to underride safety recommendations or petitions from NTSB or IIHS for decades. More recommendations from the GAO is not likely to do the trick. We have three branches of government for a reason, and part of the role of Congress is to say: do this or do that.

In this case, NHTSA has acted like a willful child who is going to do whatever they want.

  • Congress needs to take the bull by the horn and give NHTSA a clear-cut assignment: Proceed with comprehensive underride rulemaking in order to end preventable truck underride.
  • And this assignment needs to have specific deadlines so that NHTSA will not hem & haw and dawdle (slow as molasses) at the expense of countless underride victims.
  • Congress needs to make sure that NHTSA will be held accountable and collaborate with others to make the best use of the resources available.

Guess what. All of that will be accomplished when Congress passes the STOP Underrides! Act. A clear assignment with deadlines and a Committee On Underride Protection to facilitate timely and effective rulemaking.

It’s going to take “an act of Congress” to end underride once and for all.