Tag Archives: #stopunderrides

CT Trooper Kevin Miller Became a Victim of Preventable Underride When He Rear-Ended a Tractor Trailer

Truck Safety, ,

Connecticut Trooper Kevin Miller was killed due to truck underride last Thursday when he rear ended a tractor trailer. He should have been protected from this senseless tragedy which can happen to ANYONE at ANY TIME.

His family will probably get his death certificate in the mail like we did. It will not mention DEATH BY UNDERRIDE. His obituary said: “Kevin unexpectedly entered into eternal life.” Too Soon. He had lots of living left.

AnnaLeah wrote in her statement of faith: “I believe that I, and all true believers, will one day join Him in Heaven.” That fills me with joy and peace. But it was Too Soon. AnnaLeah and her sister Mary had lots of living left.

Sign the STOP Underrides! Petition so we can end these senseless deaths: Congress, Act Now To End Deadly Truck Underride!

Comments on this article illustrate how greatly TRUCK UNDERRIDE is misunderstood:   Funeral arrangements for state trooper killed in crash announced

People place the blame for the death on everything but the lack of effective underride prevention equipment. They blame the victim. They blame the truck driver. Let’s put the blame where it belongs: geometric mismatch between truck and car bumpers. And then let’s hold the trucking industry & the federal government accountable to solve the problem once & for all!

It’s an engineering problem with engineering solutions:

Big Rigs, Big Risks series by WUSA9

Go Fund Me announced by the Connecticut State Troopers Union: https://www.gofundme.com/tfc-kevin-miller-1015

In Memory of Trooper Kevin Miller

Senator Gillibrand Responds to Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Assn Concerns re: STOP Underrides! Bill

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On December 19, 2017, shortly after the STOP Underrides! Bill was introduced, I called Mike Matousek, Director of Government Affairs for the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). I told him about the bill and asked him if we could discuss any concerns they might have about the legislation. He agreed to look it over.

Despite the fact that I sent reams of information about the underride problem and solutions and tried to set up face to face meetings with OOIDA representatives, OOIDA proceeded to issue a letter of opposition to Senator Gillibrand and Senator Rubio on January 29:

OOIDA S 2219 Letter

On March 3, trucker advocates Allen and Donna Smith went through the OOIDA talking points on the bill one at a time on their Radio Talk Show (Jerry, Lois, and I were their guests for the show):

  1. Allen and Donna Smith, truck safety advocates for over ten years, have used their Ask the Trucker social media platform to raise awareness about the underride problem. Thank you, Allen & Donna!
  2. Ask the Trucker blogposts:
    Underride Guard Mandate: A Counterargument to Industry Opposition
    Unknown facts about underride crashes and prevention
  3. Podcast of Ask the Trucker BlogTalkRadio: Underride Protection Act of 2017- Truck RearGuards & SideGuards

On March 16, Senator Gillibrand responded to OOIDA with a letter addressing each of their concerns. Read it for yourself and see what you think is the truth of the matter:

Letter to OOIDA from Senator Gillibrand

 

Underride Safety Hazard Notice in Accordance With Commonsense Safety Recommendations

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

When I saw a NHTSA Safety Recall Notice, which Lois Durso had received for a car she owns, I immediately thought, “We should make one of those for trucks!” A month or so later, we did.

This is not an official notice. But there are people who need this information.
Because it’s true.

Traffic Deaths STILL Public Health Crisis:”Researcher Says Auto Safety Measures Prevented Millions of Deaths”

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , ,

Traffic safety measures ranging from seat belt and drunk driving enforcement to design standards for cars and trucks “averted a public health disaster” by preventing about 5.8 million deaths in the U.S. from 1968 through 2015, according to a new study.

The analysis found that without federal and state policies, traffic deaths annually would “likely have been in the hundreds of thousands rather than tens of thousands” in recent years. The report, published in the Journal of Public Health Policy, was by Leon Robertson, an injury epidemiology expert who taught at Yale and Harvard and has written more than 150 research papers and books, many on automotive safety. . .

Read more here: Researcher Says Auto Safety Measures Prevented Millions of Deaths, FairWarning, Christopher Jensen, March 12, 2018

I am thankful for every life saved from the fate of a motor vehicle fatality. However, there are still thousands of lives lost every year to preventable traffic deaths. And this most certainly includes the hundreds (and maybe thousands) of lives lost to Death By Truck Underride, which has been woefully neglected for decades by those who could have done something about it and which negates the safety features of modern cars.

In my book, this is still a major public health problem. And we need to start acting like it is!

Last night, Pres. Obama referred in the past tense to crash fatalities as a public health problem.

Podcast of Ask the Trucker BlogTalkRadio: Underride Protection Act of 2017- Truck RearGuards & SideGuards

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety, , , ,

You can listen here to the podcast of the talk show on March 3, 2018, hosted by trucker Allen Smith and his wife Donna — advocates for truckers for over 10 years:

Sat 3-3-18 6 PM ET  

On 12-12-17 U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) & Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Stop Underrides Act, S. 2219 legislation. Then U.S. Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA) introduced the companion bill in the House, H.R. 4622

An ‘underride crash’ is when a car slides under the body of a large truck, such as a semi-trailer, during an accident. When these accidents happen, a car’s safety features are not able to protect passengers because most of the car slides under the trailer, and the truck crashes straight through the windows and into the passengers. 

The bill was originally drafted by our guests tonight, Marianne Karth and Lois Durso. Both Marianne and Lois have lost children due to underride crashes. Marianne & husband Jerry lost their 2 daughters, AnnaLeah and Mary in 2013, and Lois lost her daughter Roya in 2004. The bill was originally called the Roya, AnnaLeah and Mary Comprehensive Underride Protection Act of 2017 or the  RAMCUP Act of 2017—now known as STOP Underrides Act.

We’ll discuss solutions which can prevent underride crashes accounting for at least 300+ deaths per year. Show will include discussions regarding rear & sideguards. Few people realize that the 1969 Federal Register recorded that the Department of Transportation intended, after further study, to extend underride protection to the sides of large trucks.

Discussion includes: Costs, added weight, decreased Insurance costs, Loading docks, Axle/Tandems, distracted driving.
For more info stopunderrides@gmail.com  www.StopUnderRides.org

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/truthabouttrucking/2018/03/03/underride-protection-act-of-2017–truck-rearguards-sideguards

“Unknown facts about underride crashes and prevention” featured on Ask The Trucker Radio Talk Show

Safety Advocacy, Truck Safety,

March 3, 2018, on BlogTalkRadio, Ask The Trucker Talk Show hosts, Allen & Donna Smith, talk with Lois Durso, Jerry and Marianne Karth about truck underride and the bill: Underride Protection Act of 2017- Truck RearGuards & SideGuards

and write about it in their blog post: Unknown facts about underride crashes and prevention

In Memory of Reza Zati

Underride Crash Map, , ,

At around 11:50 p.m., officers responded to the scene of a two-vehicle collision on the inner loop of I-495 at Seminary Road before Georgia Avenue, Maryland State Police said in a statement. They found a 2004 Honda Civic, which had been traveling at high speed, slammed into the rear of a tractor trailer and lodged beneath.

The Honda’s driver, identified as Reza Zati of Jessup, Md., was pronounced dead at the scene. Driver killed in Beltway crash

See more underride tragedies at Underride Crash Memorials and on our Interactive Underride Crash Map. To add more information on this story or to add other underride crashes to this map, send an email to underridemap@gmail.com; use this Interactive Underride Crash Map Crash Location Input Form.

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.

The guard didn’t break off AS the car went under the truck; the car went under BECAUSE the guard broke off!

Truck Safety, , , ,

I have read many news reports of truck crashes. It often strikes me how little the media, along with everyone else, understands the underride problem. Last night I read an article about a truck crash which happened in November in Dallas; it was a good example of this common misunderstanding of what an underride is.

A car was traveling northbound along Harry Hines Boulevard when it started coming up on a UPS truck at the Lombardy Lane stoplight. The 18-wheeler’s 53-foot trailer was empty at the time. However, the car’s driver did not stop and slammed into the back of the big rig. The UPS truck’s rear bumper broke as the car went underneath the trailer.   http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/11/13/car-slams-into-big-rig-dallas/

What the reporter apparently misunderstood was that the rear bumper did not break off as the car went underneath the trailer. No, the car went underneath the trailer because the bumper broke off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was too weak — just like on the majority of the millions of trucks on the road today. Underride tragedies waiting to happen.

At first I was frustrated with the way underride gets reported (or rather does not get reported). But then I realized that this is a perfect example of the common misperception that something about the severity of the crash forces/dynamics itself is what leads to the car knocking off or bending the rear underride guard. In fact, it is the weak guard which gives way, fails, and bends or comes right off the trailer and then there is nothing to stop the car from going into the empty space under the truck.

Or, as Jerry Karth says, to put it another way, “the guard failed to perform as it was designed to do.” (As this IIHS video so thoroughly explains.)

In contrast, see what happens when there is an effective underride protective device to cause the car to bounce off the guard (deflects the crash forces) and allows the car’s crush zone, airbags, and seat belts to work like they were supposed to upon collision.

Improved Rear Underride Guard Crash Test:

Side Guard Crash Test:

The car is damaged, but the passengers are safe:

I hope this helps people to better understand the dynamics of an underride crash.

How much more data do we need to convince us to take action that will STOP Underride tragedies?

Truck Safety,
This is old news. But I just saw it. It is news that will haunt the families involved forever. And it could have been prevented.

 A car was traveling northbound along Harry Hines Boulevard when it started coming up on a UPS truck at the Lombardy Lane stoplight. The 18-wheeler’s 53-foot trailer was empty at the time. However, the car’s driver did not stop and slammed into the back of the big rig. The UPS truck’s rear bumper broke as the car went underneath the trailer.

The reporter didn’t understand. The rear bumper did not break off AS the car went under. The car went under because the bumper broke off!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was too weak — just like on the majority of the millions of trucks on the road today. Underride tragedies waiting to happen.


Why do we let this continue to happen year after year? Do we value life so little? How much more data do we need to convince us that we need to take immediate action?

1969 Chicago Cubs Baseball a Thing of the Past; Same Year DOT Planned to Require Side Guards on Trucks

Truck Safety, ,

I recently moved into a new house. This morning I passed a box that has yet to be unpacked.  In some past move, I had labeled it “1969 Chicago Cubs Mug” (owned by my diehard Cubs fan husband Jerry).

That caught my attention because, in the last few years, the year 1969 (a fateful Cubs season, now a Thing of the Past) sticks out in my mind as the year that DOT said that they intended to “extend underride protection to the sides” of large trucks.

Well, that would have been wonderful if they had actually done so. But they did not.

Hundreds of people every year could have survived truck crashes. If we estimate 200 people each year, who could still be alive had side guards been required on every truck, times the 49 years since that fateful 1969 baseball season, that would be 9,800 people — almost 10,000 deaths that could have been prevented.

Add to that another 800/year from front and rear underride deaths = 39,200. Almost 50,000 deaths could have been prevented with comprehensive underride protection.

Let’s all work together to make sure that, in the next 49 years, it will be a different story and Death By Underride will become a Thing of the Past.

Previous related post: March Historically a Momentous Month for Truck Underride Safety Advocacy; Beware the Ides of March!