Tougher Under-guard Protocols by the IIHS Are Helping Reduce Underride Truck Accidents

A recent report in Trucks.com profiled the efforts of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) to force truck companies to make safer under-guards.

Under-guards are devices that are installed in the rear of trucks to prevent cars from sliding under the truck when an accident happens. If a car, especially a small car, rear-ends a truck, the car can slide under the truck because trucks are higher off the ground than the fronts of many cars. The drivers and riders in the car can easily be killed or suffer severe injuries if the car slides underneath the truck. Under-guards help prevent that from happening.

The IIHS has conducted several types of studies on truck underride accidents. They found that more than 400 of the people who died in the approximately 2,000 truck crashes they examined in 2016, died due to a car striking the rear of a truck. An earlier IIHS study revealed that about 4 in 5 rear-end crashes between cars and trucks caused a truck underride.

The IIHS and other safety proponents designed a safety program called Toughguard, which analyzes how well under-guards work for midsize cars. The cars travel at 35 mph and head towards a stationary semitrailer. The following three types of impact are examined:

• 100%. The car strikes the middle of the under-guard directly
• 50%. Half of the car strikes the truck under-guard
• 30%. Slightly less than a third of the car strikes the trailer corner

To pass the Toughguard test, the under-guard needs to do more than just stop cars from sliding under a trailer. The under-guard should also be able to stay intact to handle the collision forces.

The Toughguard test results so far

The major truck companies – the ones that manufacture nearly four in five trailers nationwide – have passed the test. These companies are:

• Great Dane
• Manac
• Stoughton Trailers
• Vanguard National Trailer
• Wabash National
• Strick Trailers
• Hyundai Translead

A major concern raised by IIHS is that their efforts to get the NHTSA to implement tougher standards to further prevent underride accidents has not met with the positive results they wanted – new regulations by the NHTSA.

An additional concern is that Congress’s effort to create tougher under-guard standards has stalled. A bipartisan bill was drafted in 2017 which would have required strong under-guard standards, and the requirement that the under-guards also be used in the front of the truck and the sides of the trailer. The bill has not become a law.

At Gainsberg Injury and Accident Lawyers, our Chicago truck accident lawyers have been fighting for injury and wrongful death victims for more than 20 years. We have the experience and resources to determine how your truck accident happened and who is responsible. Our lawyers bring negligence claims against careless drivers and the trucking companies that hired the drivers. To speak with a strong advocate, please phone us at 312-600-9585 or complete our contact form to schedule an appointment.