The fact that truck and trailer designs can potentially allow underride when there are collisions with passenger vehicles has a long history of being misunderstood. With that in mind, on October 12, 2024, we sent letters to two lists of “100 top carriers” in North America via Certified Mail. We wanted their Boards and CEOs to be aware of the September 2024 $462 million verdict in a product liability lawsuit against a trailer manufacturer for failing to install a protective rear guard, leading to two fatalities — indicating that juries will not accept more of these preventable deaths.
We also encouraged trucking companies to take steps to protect road users and their bottom line by making sure that their fleets are equipped with Rear Impact Guards (RIGs) which qualify for the IIHS TOUGHGUARD Award and side impact guards that prevent side underride fatalities.
The mailing list for the 200 companies can be found here.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, an underride crash test video is worth at least a million. Nothing is more convincing of the fact that underride protection can mean the difference between life and death. Well, nothing except viewing a crash test in person.
To that end, here is a sample of crash test videos which serve to document the technical effectiveness of underride protective devices — more startling when juxtaposed against crash tests with no underride protection or too-weak designs.
In case you need a reminder, these crash tests are not conducted merely to satisfy curiosity, but in an effort to bring an end to ongoing preventable, unimaginable underride tragedies.
The NHTSA Advisory Committee on Underride Protection held its third meeting on February 8, 2024, via Zoom. The main agenda item was rear underride. Presentations and discussions from the meeting can be viewed by using the YouTube video links below.
So, you ask, what are Truck Impact Guards? To borrow from NHTSA terminology, Rear Impact Guards are devices attached to Commercial Motor Vehicles in order to GUARD against deadly underride and intrusion into the occupant survival space of a passenger vehicle when there is a collision or IMPACT [an impinging or striking especially of one body against another, Merriam Webster] at the REAR of a large truck.
Although NHTSA does not yet require them, a Side Impact Guard is, likewise, a device attached to a large truck to GUARD against deadly underride and intrusion into the occupant survival space of a passenger vehicle when there is a collision or IMPACT at the SIDE of a large truck.
Thus, it stands to reason, even though NHTSA apparently has no plans at present to require this life-saving device, a Front Impact Guard is a device attached to a large truck to GUARD against deadly underride and intrusion into the occupant survival space of a passenger vehicle when there is a collision or IMPACT at the FRONT of a large truck.
Truck Impact Guards do not prevent crashes. But, they do compensate for the lack of crash compatibility, which exists due to the geometric mismatch between the “bumpers” of two colliding vehicles that allows one to slide UNDER the other. Effective impact guards ensure that the passenger vehicle’s crashworthiness features — air bags, crumple zones, bumpers, seat belt tensioners — operate as intended to preserve the occupant survival space. This improved crash compatibility can, therefore, serve to make truck crashes more survivable.
These engineer-designed devices can also GUARD Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs) — pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists — reducing the likelihood of catastrophic injuries during collisions with large trucks.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has announced the next four meetings of the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP):
February 8, 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. ET; Topic: Rear Underride
March 13, 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. ET; Topic: Side Underride
April 24, 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. ET; Topic: Front Override
May 22, 12:30 – 4:30 p.m. ET; Topic: Underride Data
February 8 will be the third 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.
There’s no easy way to get through that time of year when we remember how AnnaLeah & Mary were suddenly snatched from this earthly life. How can it have been ten years ago? May 4, 2013 seems like just yesterday.
Read this post all the way through to find out what advances have come about, or skip to the end to find out how you can help. Despite our loud voices continuously raising awareness and pushing for change, progress has been painfully slow. But these are some actions which the USDOT has taken:
Rear underride guards are now on the annual commercial motor vehicle inspection checklist (rule issued by FMCSA in December 2021). This is important because poorly-maintained rear guards increase the chance of crash severity.
After beginning work on an improved rear guard rule in December 2015, in response to our 2013/2014 petitions, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finally issued an improved rule in July 2022. Incredibly, it fell short of requiring that the guards had the full strength already proven possible by the IIHS testing of nine major trailer manufacturers! We have petitioned NHTSA to reconsider this ill-advised decision.
NHTSA began taking applications for membership on an Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP) in July 2022. They finally announced the selected committee members in April 2023. The first ACUP meeting will take place virtually on May 25. I’m thankful that I will, at last, be able to sit “around the table” with a diverse group of stakeholders to hammer out reasonable solutions to this century-old problem.
Simultaneously with the ACUP announcement, and in advance of receiving any recommendations from the Advisory Committee, NHTSA published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) for a potential side guard regulation. Their cost benefit analysis is based on questionable data and concludes that a side guard regulation would not be cost effective. We are working hard to provide more accurate information in order to correct the CBA in favor of saving lives.
“How can I help?” I thought you’d never ask!
Pray for the ACUP members and for this process to produce meaningful outcomes.
Only17 states have an UNDERRIDE FIELD on their state crash report form. This contributes to underreporting of these deaths. By 5:00 p.m. EST on MAY 3, submit a simple, brief Public Comment here. Tell NHTSA you want them to require (not merely suggest) that states have an Underride Field (and which indicates whether it was front, side, or rear) on their crash report form.
By June 20, submit a Public Comment on the side guard ANPRM here. Tell them why you think that there should be a side guard regulation (simple reason: To Save Lives).
Tens of thousands of underride victims have been a nameless group whose senseless deaths have been swept under the rug for decades despite the ingenuity of engineers to prevent horrific underride. No more. We would like to remember these Precious Ones Gone Too Soon in a special way. We hope to receive permission from the USDOT to install a Commemorative Bell of Hope at their office building in Washington, D.C. We will be organizing a day In Memory of Underride Victims — to ring the bell and call out the names of individuals who lost their lives to underride. We do not know every name, but we will include as many as possible. If you would like to contribute to the purchase of this bell or participate in this event, please let me know by writing to me at marianne@annaleahmary.com.
Side Guard Crash Test in Raleigh, September 2022
To remember how AnnaLeah & Mary lived — full of love & laughter — not merely how they died.
In July 2022, eight years after our original petition was delivered to the Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), whose mission it is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce economic costs due to road traffic crashes, through education, research, safety standards, and enforcement, took the following actions related to underride protection:
We are thankful that this collaborative strategy for addressing the underride problem, which we first dreamed of in 2014, is finally becoming a reality.
July 15, 2022, Published the Final Rear Impact Guard Rule. This long-overdue updated regulation has been in limbo since December 2015, and, unfortunately, falls short of what has been proven possible by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) and nine trailer manufacturers. It goes into effect January 11, 2023.
Petitions for reconsideration must be submitted by August 29, 2022 submitted to the Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, West Building, Washington, DC 20590. All petitions received will be posted without change to https://www.regulations.gov, including any personal information provided.
In this crash test video, the top test shows what IIHS has proven possible, the bottom test shows what the 2022 rule will require:
By refusing to revise the December 2015 NPRM to the TOUGHGuard proven level of strength, NHTSA has demonstrated an unwillingness to require that all manufacturers install these stronger guards as Standard on new trailers. To state the obvious, the result is that manufacturers may continue to offer these guards as an Option, thereby allowing the ongoing production of trailers — into the future — with guards having a known unreasonable risk of Death By Underride. How do they sleep at night knowing that their meaningless rhetoric and regulatory malpractice means many more innocent people will needlessly die?
This is nothing less than a reckless disregard for human life.
Not only have we lost two daughters due to a weak rear underride guard, but we continue to see countless loved ones lost to other families in a similar way. Senseless deaths. Solutions are available — developed by innovative engineers but too often left on the shelf while people continue to die.
I get Google Alert notifications of truck crashes every day. Here are the rear underride fatalities which I have found in the last few months:
FMCSA has issued a Final Rule, effective December 9, 2021, requiring Rear Impact Guards to be inspected as part of commercial motor vehicle inspections on those trucks which must have them installed. This is good because a guard weakened by cuts, tears, rust, bends, or loose connections is going to be less likely to prevent a car from going under a truck.
If a truck fails the inspection, the violation could cost a motor carrier a maximum of $15,876 and a truck driver $3,969. This could lead to the replacement of many rear underride guards — hopefully, with guards that meet the TOUGHGuard level of strength proven possible by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and now on many new trailers.
This is what I know about the availability of replacement equipment:
As a mom of nine, I know all too well the hardships and difficulties that accompany pregnancy, labor, and birth. So I really shouldn’t be surprised that the process of bringing about change in traffic safety regulations is similarly fraught with angst. Right?
Yet, I was still taken by surprise when I discovered last week that a long-awaited infrastructure bill contained an unexpected revision of legislative language on underride provisions — after it was already passed. Here I thought that the 2021 Infrastructure Bill — even though it didn’t contain a strong mandate for side underride regulations — contained a definite mandate to meet the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) TOUGHGuard level of strength for rear underride protection. Wrong.
Unbeknownst to me, the Senate had revised the House version of that underride requirement — despite the fact that IIHS had clearly shown that engineers could develop rear underride guards to prevent cars from going under the rear of trailers at the outer edges. This revision was noted by IIHS as an apparent and unfortunate rejection of proven safety technology.
Another longstanding IIHS-HLDI priority included in the legislation is improvements to truck underride guards. The bill calls for an updated rear underride standard that would incorporate at least two of the three requirements for the IIHS TOUGHGUARD award: Guards would have to prevent underride by a passenger vehicle traveling 35 mph when it strikes the rear of a trailer in the center or with a 50 percent overlap. It also calls for regulators to consider requiring the most challenging part of the IIHS evaluation, the 30 percent overlap crash.Years of work by IIHS-HLDI paved way for safety provisions in infrastructure bill
In other words, the bill stopped short of a clear mandate to NHTSA to write a rule which would require manufacturers to meet that third requirement. In contrast, the House version of the Infrastructure called for a regulation in which Rear Impact Guards would be required:
“to be equipped with rear impact guards that are designed to prevent passenger compartment intrusion from a trailer or semitrailer when a passenger vehicle traveling at 35 miles per hour makes— (i) an impact in which the passenger vehicle impacts the center of the rear of the trailer or semitrailer; (ii) an impact in which 50 percent the width of the passenger vehicle overlaps the rear of the trailer or semitrailer; and (iii) an impact in which 30 percent of the width of the passenger vehicle overlaps the rear of the trailer or semitrailer. “
Why would they water down the underride provisions so significantly — leaving it to the discretion of the Secretary (under pressure from a resistant Industry) on whether to require a proven solution? Do we want people to die?
These crash test videos show a 30% overlap with & without a TOUGHGuard rear underride guard.
Like any mother facing childbirth, after almost nine years of advocating for change in a dangerous truck design which killed my daughters, I now await the release of the Final Rule [anticipated in January 2022]. Can I expect the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to make a recommendation to the Secretary for the strongest possible level of rear underride protection? Can I trust them to take into full consideration the years of research, along with the unimaginable toll on individuals and families? Will we see a healthy, robust regulation released for rear underride protection?
