Underride crashes occur when a motor vehicle collides with the back or side of a tractor trailer, becoming wedged underneath the trailer with no way to get out. These accidents are often fatal, resulting in nearly 1,800 deaths every year according to the National Institutes of Health.
In 2023, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced a special new Advisory Committee on Underride Protection, however, critics say this move is long overdue. Below, we explore how NHTSA officials failed to enact legislation necessary to reduce underride crashes and what you can do if you or a loved one were hurt in a truck accident.
What Makes Underride Crashes So Dangerous?
Underride crashes tend to be more serious than car-on-car accidents for a multitude of reasons, one being the size difference between a large truck and a smaller passenger vehicle.
Secondly, the dynamics of an underride crash often render a vehicle’s safety features essentially useless. Since the height of a passenger car is just above the bottom of a trailer, it’s usually the windshield that takes the majority of the impact in an accident.
Most crash sensors and safety features are located in the front and side bumpers — not in the windshield. In some cases, the car doesn’t register a crash and the vehicle’s airbags don’t deploy.
How the NHTSA Dropped the Ball
The announcement of NHTSA’s new Advisory Committee in April 2023 came on the heels of President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which requires the NHTSA to conduct a study on the benefits, costs, and feasibility of mandating underride protection for trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles weighing over 10,000 lbs.
However, the Administration has been receiving reports since the 1960s about the risk of underride crashes and never acted on the clear threat to public safety. Despite the available research, the Administration neglected to take simple and cost-effective measures to reduce risk.
The reports showed that in many cases, the NHTSA bent to the will of commercial trucking companies, who lobbied against easy-to-implement safety measures because they would be too cost prohibitive. The National Association of Trailer Manufacturers suggests that the total yearly cost for equipping all new tractor trailers with side and rear underride guards would be about $778 million.
While this is certainly a very large number, it’s important to consider how many lives would be saved by installing the guards and the value that has to thousands of families nationwide. In fact, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) suggests that mandatory underride guards could save more than 10 times as many people as the NHTSA estimates.
Other Ways to Prevent Underride Accidents
Side and rear guards are just one way to prevent underride accidents. Other measures that can help to reduce the risk of crashes include:
- Improved truck inspections. Trucking companies are often lax in their inspections and may cut corners in order to cut costs. This makes existing safety features on trucks ineffective in the event of an accident, potentially resulting in an underride crash instead of a traditional collision.
- Better police training. The majority of the data on different types of crashes in America is gathered by police officers on the scene. Law enforcement personnel are responsible for filing a police report and categorizing the collision, which in turn gets entered into a database and aggregated into various reports. When police fail to accurately record underride crashes, this ultimately skews the data that industry regulations are based on. As a result, underreporting can give the illusion that the risk of collision is much lower than it actually is.
What to Do After an Underride Crash
If you or a family member were involved in an underride crash, several things will happen next. You will likely need extensive medical care after the collision depending on how the accident occurred and the severity of your injuries. This may go on for some time after the crash, so it’s important to keep copies of all your medical records and expenses.
A qualified truck accident attorney can help you hold negligent trucking companies accountable for failure to install underride guards despite evidence that they effectively prevent catastrophic injuries and fatalities. While nothing can erase what happened, a fair settlement can cover medical expenses, lost wages, and other financial damages you incurred.
Mazow | McCullough, PC is a team of experienced truck accident lawyers with the skills to provide you with zealous, comprehensive legal advocacy when you need it most. Contact us today to schedule your free initial consultation by calling (978) 744-8000 or toll free at (855) 693-9084.
