As I was getting ready to attend the American Trucking Associations’ Technology & Maintenance Council (ATA/TMC) Annual Meeting at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta on Monday, I received an email with another document which points to the needless neglect of preventable Death By Truck Underride which has gone on for decades.
The latest piece of incriminating evidence just happened to be published in 2002 by the TMC themselves. It is entitled, TMC Future Truck Committee Information Report: 2002 — A Brief Look at the Far Horizon; An Exploration of What’s to Come for Trucking.
This document*, which was developed by the Technology & Maintenance Council’s (TMC) Future Truck Committee Far Horizons Subcommittee, predicted that there would be:
- “Underride regulations for straight trucks (estimated)” [Single Unit Trucks] in 2005
- “Frontal aggressivity regulations (tractors)” [Front Underride Protection] in 2006; and
- “Side underride regulations for trailers (estimated)” in 2006.
Imagine! The trucking industry was predicting — 16 years ago — that there would be regulations in place 12 years ago to end preventable truck underride, yet they took no initiative to solve this engineering problem themselves! It has taken 2 moms (families), who lost daughters to this travesty in 2004 and 2013 (when the problem could have already been addressed), to push the industry and federal government to take action.
Not only that. . . there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight for this preventable highway carnage as the trucking industry continues to publicly oppose the STOP Underrides! Bill and the legislative offices, who could take action to move it forward, appear to be waiting for a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study to be completed on this issue — which could take a year to complete. Don’t we already have enough evidence, studies, reports, and recommendations* to indicate that this legislation will provide a practical solution to end an ongoing public health problem and should be given top priority?
Furthermore, though we had some encouraging meetings with trailer manufacturer leaders while at the conference, they could provide us with no timeline for when effective solutions might be available to prevent side underride or when upgraded rear guards will be offered as standard features on all trailers. In addition, although I have repeatedly attempted to organize a forum of manufacturers and engineers to collaboratively solve this problem more quickly, there is resistance to this idea — despite the claim that “Safety is not competitive.”
We know all too well that our daughters paid the price for the reality that safety is indeed, from all appearances, sacrificed to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace.
*The ATA/TMC Future Truck Committee (2002) report adds one more layer of proof that truck underride has been a well-known and documented problem, including these additional publications:
- History of Underride Research & Reports: 1896 to 2017:
- 1896 This patent for a side underride protective device for street cars was issued on July 14 1896 and cited by numerous more recent underride patents: http://www.google.com.pg/patents/US564027.1913 A patent was issued in 1913 for a “Safety Device for Motor Vehicles” to provide underride protection for the sides of large trucks. https://www.google.com/patents/US1127241 Since that time, numerous patents have been published which refer to this 1913 patent (with the patent information organized in these columns: Citing Patent, Filing date, Publication date, Applicant, Title). . .
- 1969 DOT published a document for rear underride proposed rulemaking on the Federal Register on March 19, 1969, indicating that they “anticipated that the proposed Standard will be amended, after technical studies have been completed, to extend the requirement for underride protection to the sides of large vehicles.”https://annaleahmary.com/2016/03/side-guards-the-original-intent-of-nhtsa-rulemakers-in-the-1969-nprm-docket-no-1-11-notice-2/1977 Page Patent guard rail for side protection on large wheel vehicles, 1977 US Side Guard Patent US4060268 William Page.pdf1977 An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) crash test research illustrates the ineffectiveness of 1953 rear underride guard. http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr1206.pdf#page=5
1977 A Senate hearing leads to new calls for stronger underride protections, and illustrates the inadequacies of existing requirements. http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr1206.pdf
1996 Volvo began manufacturing trucks with Front Underrun Protection in 1996 in Europe. This is a patent filed in 2007 for an “Underrun protector and method of providing underrun protection.” http://www.google.sr/patents/WO2008002242A1?cl=en Other relevant information on front underrun protection can be found here: https://annaleahmary.com/tag/front-underrun-protection/
1997 Study illustrates the discrepancies in The Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) underride fatality count when compared to another database, highlighting that more people are dying from underride than are being recorded — possibly 27-50% of the annual 4,000 truck/car crash fatalities rather than the 4% reported by the FARS. http://www.iihs.org/externaldata/srdata/docs/sr3202.pdf
2009 IIHS begins to call for the requirement of front and side underride guards, as well as improved rear guard requirements in its testimony to US House Committee on Energy and Commerce. http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/laws/testimony
May 18 U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection 2009 Patent filed for a “Side impact guard device for industrial vehicles, particularly trailers or semi-trailers”
