Tag Archives: Lateral Protection Device PLUS

In Memory of Colene Ruhl (September 16, 2025)

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, Underride Crash Map, , , , , , , ,

A woman in a motorized wheelchair was hit and killed Tuesday afternoon in Winter Springs, a spokesperson for the city told WESH 2. . .

Officials said they found the woman lying in the roadway, “deceased from what appeared to be injuries suffered from being struck by a semi-tractor-trailer.”

The woman was on the sidewalk when a semi heading east on SR-434 was attempting to make a right turn on Belle Avenue.

As the semi began to turn right onto Belle, the woman started to cross Belle and was hit by the trailer of the turning semi, thrown from the wheelchair and killed, officials said. Woman thrown from wheelchair, killed after being hit by semi making turn in Winter Springs

Colene Ruhl, Precious One Gone Too Soon

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. This is also true for Vulnerable Road Users, such as pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and wheelchair users, who can suffer catastrophic injuries when they collide with the unguarded side of a large truck.

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. 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.

Find out more about Vulnerable Road Users and preventable underride tragedies:

Lateral Protection Device+ Performance Standard = Prevention of Side Underride Tragedies

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , , , ,

Update (May 10, 2025): VRU crash testing was conducted on September 13, 2024, in Raleigh to confirm the viability of this LPD+ Performance Standard —

  1. Unguarded VRU Crash Test Video link
  2. VRU Guarded Crash Test video link
  3. VRU Crash Test with Fully-Guarded Trailer – video link

The “proof is in the pudding.” I rest my case. mwk

On January 18, 2024, engineers and underride experts gathered via Zoom to expand the Consensus Side Guard Standard, developed by TEAM Underride in 2020, to specifically address the protection of All Road Users — that is, not only the occupants of passenger vehicles but, also, pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists and other Vulnerable Road Users. In 2022, the term, Lateral Protection Device PLUS or LPD+, was coined*, and now the goal was to create language for a performance standard which such a device should meet.

We had gotten a good start on this process in December 2023. We continued that invigorating discussion and wordsmithing, and this is what we came up with to define the requirements for a Lateral Protection Device PLUS, or side impact guard, on a Commercial Motor Vehicle:

A side impact guard shall be considered to meet the performance standard if it is able to:

  1. prevent intrusion into the occupant survival space of a mid-size vehicle when the Commercial Motor Vehicle (CMV) is struck at any location along its side, at any angle, and at any closing speed up to and including 40 mph, and
  2. prevent a Vulnerable Road User (VRU) from passing underneath the CMV in an interaction along its side.

It is our hope that this process will ultimately result in collaborative action among diverse stakeholders, including government and industry, to develop a voluntary consensus standard which can guide rulemaking and catalyze timely, widespread adoption of underride protection on the sides of large vehicles as envisioned by the Department of Transportation in 1969. For the saving of many lives.

* The term LPD+ was suggested by Garrett Mattos on December 2, 2022, during a Zoom discussion among underride experts and advocates collaborating together as TEAM Underride to advance the implementation of engineering devices to prevent Death By Underride for All Road Users.