The U.S. has adopted rules that require underride guards to be mounted to the back of 18-wheeler trailers. You have no doubt seen these guards. If you are facing the rear of the trailer there are two steel beams that come from the bottom of the trailer down toward the ground. About a foot or so from where these steel beams end there is a steel crossmember that goes across from one side to the other. The guards are designed to prevent vehicles from going underneath the trailers because the guard should hit the approaching vehicle down low in the bumper to hood area. Unfortunately, recent testing shows these guards are actually causing some of the horrific injuries they should prevent.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety released a report on March 1, 2011 citing tests the outfit has conducted that show peopel in cars that go under these trailers may be decapitated by the guards themselves. This happens even though these guards meet U.S. regulations.
According to the IHHS, these tests show the need for stronger and better rules for underride guards. Trailers made to the Canadian specification worked much better in the tests.
“Damage to the cars in some of these tests was so devastating that it’s hard to watch the footage without wincing,” Adrian Lund, president of the insurance group, said in a statement. “If these had been real-world crashes there would be no survivors.”
Crash Dummies were literally decapitated in three of six tests conducted, the institute said.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2009 identified its car-truck underride regulations, adopted in 1996 and 1998, as ones that needed improvement, agency administrator David Strickland said in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Four hundred nineteen car occupants were killed in 2007 and 352 in 2008 in crashes involving passenger vehicles striking the rear of large trucks, according to NHTSA data.
Almost 80 percent of crashes involving cars rear-ending trucks involved significant amounts of underride, according to the federal Large Truck Crash Causation study, based on fatality and injury data from 2001 through 2003, even after NHTSA required stronger structures to be lowered to 22 inches off the ground.
Amazingly, the NHTSA doesn’t require the guards to be tested on trailers themselves. As a result inherent weaknesses with the design and the field performance of the guards is unknown. These tests show the guards are not holding up in the real world.
“There’s no demonstrating that this actually works as installed,” he said. “Part of the failure is how it’s attached to the truck, and maybe the truck itself fails.”
Canadian regulators require stronger crash guards. Trailers made by Wabash National Corp., based in Lafayette, Indiana, are engineered to exceed the Canadian requirements, Lund said.
Trailers made by Hyundai Translead Inc., a subsidiary of Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Co., to meet U.S. standards alone showed the most problems, he said. A trailer made by Vanguard National Trailer Corp. in Monon, Indiana, was also tested. It performed better than the Hyundai trailer but not as well as the one from Wabash.
Injuries sustained in these types of collisions are catastrophic. It is extremely demanding upon a law firm to take on this type of case. If you or a family member has been injured in this type of case you must have a law firm on your side that has Board Certified Personal Injury Trial Lawyers, the resources, trial skill and ability and the experience to take on the trucking companies and trailer manufacturers. Chad Points and Tony Denena of Denena & Points, PC are those type of lawyers. Both partners are Board Certified in Personal Injury Trial Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Call us today at 877-307-9500 and we will explain your rights and lay out a game plan to get your life back on track. Spend some time here on our site and learn about the issues that are present in truck accident litigation.