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.
How many underride investigative reports will it take to finally bring about government regulations and industry cooperation to end preventable death by underride? Tampa Bay 10 recently aired the results of their year-long underride investigation.
Tell Congress that you want them to exercise their oversight of the federal roadway safety agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Call the U.S. Congress Switchboard, (202) 224-3121, and ask for each of the following members of the Senate Commerce Committee. Tell them that you want them to hold an Underride Oversight Hearing in the 2024 lame duck session:
“TEAM Underride,” a loosely-organized coalition of engineers, researchers, safety advocates, and families of underride victims have planned multiple underride crash tests, underride crash test events, and a vigil for underride victims. Two of those events were in D.C. — an D.C. Underride Crash Test Eventon March 26, 2019 in the Audi Field parking lot one mile from DOT and an Underride Victim Vigil in September 2023 on the sidewalk in front of the DOT building on New Jersey Avenue in D.C.
Despite multiple communications inviting the Department of Transportation, and especially NHTSA who is responsible for underride rulemaking, to these events, less than a handful of department representatives have shown up. What’s with that? What don’t they want to see? What they should want to see is honest to goodness research being undertaken to solve the decades-old problem of Death By Underride — proof-positive that the ball is in their court to issue regulations which could end countless preventable tragedies.
I emailed multiple people at DOT on January 11, 2019 — inviting them to our March crash test. Then, on February 6, 2019, after Lois Durso and I had checked out the Audi Field parking lot and walked over to DOT from there, we hand delivered a stack of event flyers and asked that they be distributed. I was told, “We will make sure that the event flyers are distributed.” Only one person — from FMCSA, which is not primarily responsible for underride rulemaking — bothered to come. Two months isn’t enough notice to put it in their schedule (no travel approval necessary)?
On July 11, 2023, I sent an online scheduling request to the Office of the Secretary — hoping that Secretary Buttigieg could attend the August 3, 2023, Raleigh Underride Crash Test Event. I followed up with an email to the Office of the Secretary. On July 19, I received this reply:
Unfortunately, DOT will not be able to send a representative to the event in Raleigh. Our team is sorry this didn’t work out, but we’re grateful for your continued advocacy and safety work and look forward to continued collaboration.
Raleigh Underride Crash Test Event, August 3, 2023
I received a reply on August 23, 2024, to my August 5 request for the Secretary — or someone from the Department — to come to the Raleigh Underride Crash Test Event on September 13, 2024. I understand that Secretary Buttigieg could not fit it into his schedule, but the response was rather disturbing — though not surprising:
Thank you very much for the follow-up. Unfortunately, DOT won’t be able to send a representative for this event. We’re very sorry it won’t work out this time, and we are sending our best for an impactful event next month.
There’s no shortage of industry complaints about the definition of consensus adopted by the NHTSA Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP) — a simple majority. There’s no mention, however, of the fact that NHTSA itself directed the committee to define it for themselves. Instead, ACUP minority members bellyache about how the safety advocates supposedly took over the reins of the committee and pushed their own agenda.
It should be no surprise that industry stakeholders supported ACUP research recommendations but opposed outright recommendations to proceed with underride protection rulemaking — a stance which they have clung to for 55+ years. So, when the majority passed motions to recommend underride guard mandates, the minority repeatedly attempted to overturn the consensus decision. In so doing, they invented a fake procedural issue, seemingly to divert attention from the real issue: dangerous trucks are killing hundreds of people every year and the industry is not voluntarily doing anything substantial to prevent the senseless spilling of blood.
The trucking voice also wants you to overlook the fact that there has already been decades of research done by engineers and researchers — sometimes suppressed and often ignored by industry and government. Some members of the trucking industry are also hoping that you won’t realize that they have already spent the last 55 years doing little to solve the underride problem themselves, while at the same time, doing everything that they can to discourage Congress and the federal safety agency from proactively issuing strong underride regulations.
These vocal opponents of commonsense safety measures would like you to think that underride guards aren’t really effective at preventing horrific injuries and unimaginable ways to die, that operational issues are insurmountable hurdles, and that there are not enough people dying from underride compared to the supposedly industry-ruining, economy shutting-down costs to justify moving forward with life-preserving action. In actuality, if they could get over their short-sighted, wrong-headed thinking, they might begin to understand that the industry could realize a Win/Win outcome if only they’d stop being so bull-headed.
The minority contingent apparently hopes that NHTSA will not act upon the majority recommendations. That, of course, would be no surprise. But what would be a welcome surprise is for ACUP members and trailer manufacturers to attend an upcoming Underride Crash Test Event in Raleigh, North Carolina, on September 13, 2024.
And beyond that, I’d be suitably gratified to welcome industry stakeholders to a roundtable discussion after observing the demonstration of underride protection at work to protect occupants of passenger vehicles, as well as pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists. In order to increase involvement, we are considering the possibility of organizing this collaborative opportunity as a Zoom meeting.
Save the Date and plan to participate! Double dog dare you!
Last week, I was surprised to learn that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration {NHTSA) had published a self-analysis of their progress — dated June 2024. NHTSA responded with an 8-page explanation to Congress after a federal advisory committee condemned the safety agency for 55 years of inaction on underride crash protection in a scathing 410-page report published last month.
The committee, called the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP), was created by Congress in 2021, and established by a NHTSA charter in 2022, to assess NHTSA’s progress at advancing public safety and make recommendations to the Secretary of Transportation. The ACUP’s report documented a long history of agency reluctance to regulate the trucking industry’s safety practices, exposed allegations of misconduct by senior officials, and called for the reversal of recent rulemaking that the committee believed made “no substantial progress” to improving public safety. The report concluded, “[V]ery little has changed regarding side underride guard advancements in the last 50 years and no substantial progress has been made by DOT to prevent these horrific crash fatalities and injuries.”
All I can say is that NHTSA’s apologia to Congress is woefully inadequate. In a nutshell, “Woulda, coulda, shoulda.”* It further documents that the agency continues its disturbingly long history of inaction. Safety delayed is most certainly safety denied.
The ACUP report can be found here. NHTSA’s reportcan be found here.
* Put another way, “Spare me the useless & endless excuses!”
On June 28, 2024, the Advisory Committee on Underride Protection (ACUP) completed a scathing critique of the Department of Transportation. In a 410-page report, it documented a long history of agency reluctance to regulate the trucking industry’s safety practices, exposed allegations of misconduct by senior officials, and called for the reversal of recent rulemaking that the committee believed made “no substantial progress” to improving public safety.
In its Biennial Report, commissioned by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, the committee contended that fatalities from underride crashes, in which large commercial trucks cause severe injuries to occupants of passenger vehicles, as well as pedestrians, bicyclists or motorcyclists, are largely preventable. But the committee found that, for over 50 years, the Department has not required manufacturers to install guards under the open sides of trailers, due to pressure from the industry.
The report exposed allegations from a whistleblower of serious misconduct. According to a former project manager at the Department in the agency that enforces rules for the trucking industry, senior Department officials in the Trump administration suppressed taxpayer-funded research into the cost-effectiveness of regulations requiring side guards on trucks. Trucking company lobbyists reportedly were angered by the research findings and pressed the Department to alter them. Officials in the Biden administration commenced a rulemaking process that ignored the key findings of the suppressed research. The report called upon the Biden administration to reverse course and start the rulemaking process over again, this time by counting the benefits it previously ignored. Advocates have asked the Inspector General to investigate.
Many of the ACUP’s critiques and recommendations were adopted over the objections of the trucking industry, which lacked the ability to veto the committee’s actions. They published their dissent in a minority report authored by the CEO of Utility Trailer Manufacturing Corporation, which recently was found negligent for the fiery death of a 16 year-old boy in a side underride crash. Utility’s share of the punitive damages was $18.9 million.
The committee, which was composed of engineers, emergency medical professionals, victims, safety advocates, law enforcement, and the trucking industry, sent its Report via NHTSA to Congress and the Secretary of Transportation on July 2, 2024.
Below are links to the complete ACUP Biennial Report, the Majority Report, a Minority Report, and Appendices, including the statements of concurrence or dissent from ACUP members:
All road users are vulnerable to deadly collisions with large trucks. Truck underride guards can reduce the severity of injuries which occur when a passenger vehicle, pedestrian, bicyclist, or motorcyclist goes under a truck.
Advocate efforts to bring about federal underride regulations have been blocked for decades. Recent testimony from a whistleblower revealed that senior agency officials suppressed vital research — hiding the fact that side underride guards would be cost-effective. Key documents are provided here:
A slide presentation by Mr. Kwan to safety advocates and researchers on April 22, 2024, explaining the suppressed research — pdf and video;
Exhibit A — the Statement of Work for contract number SA9PAI. FMCSA contracted with the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center for these deliverables to fulfill the research project entitled, Truck Side Guards to Reduce Vulnerable Road User Fatalities;
Exhibit B — The Suppressed Research – Truck Side Guards and Skirts to Reduce Vulnerable Road User Fatalities: Final Report on Net Benefits and Recommendations, the final report received from the Volpe Center, meeting all the requirements of the Statement of Work. Among other things, this final report found that it was cost effective to require tractor-trailers and single-unit trucks to be equipped with lifesaving side impact guards. The cost-benefit analysis and most of the rest of this final report were suppressed from the published report by U.S. DOT; and
Exhibit C — email communications obtained through the Freedom of Information Act which document that meetings and discussions concerning the Volpe Center report occurred among senior officials at DOT, NHTSA, and FMCSA in 2019 and 2020 without Mr. Kwan’s participation.
Letter from safety advocates, researchers, and others to the Department of Transportation Inspector General.
If this suppression of research goes unchecked, people will continue to be killed senselessly from preventable Death By Underride. Tell President Biden to take immediate action in order to undo the damage done by this misrepresentation of the costs and benefits of truck underride protection:
Direct the Secretary of Transportation to withdraw the erroneous Side Impact Guard rulemaking and then do it right in a new one by counting all preventable deaths as a benefit to society;
Appoint a Presidential Advisory Committee on Integrity of Underride Research to review and ensure the scientific integrity of all underride-related research and rulemaking; and
Establish the Office of National Roadway Safety Advocate in the Office of the Secretary of Transportation proposed by members of Congress.
Amend the July 2022 Rear Impact Guard Rule – bring it up to the TOUGHGUARD strength, as directed by Congress (Appropriations).
Can we expect the Department to adhere to its scientific integrity policy published in January 2024, or is it simply meaningless rhetoric?
Require that agency officials, including public affairs officers, shall neither ask nor direct nor suggest that agency scientists and technology experts alter the presentation of their scientific findings in a manner that may compromise the objectivity or accurate representation of those findings.Scientific Integrity Policy of the United States Department of Transportation, p.11
Can we count on them to mend the broken trust and act with a sense of urgency to fulfill their mission to reduce roadway deaths and injuries?
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
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.
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.
