Insurance Group Says Tests Raise Concerns About Trailer Underride Guards
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said Thursday that its tests show potential weaknesses in current underride guards on tractor-trailers.
Testing guards that meet both U.S. regulations and stricter Canadian regulations showed the possibility for cars to sustain more damage in certain circumstances, the insurance group said.
“Modern semitrailers for the most part do a good job of keeping passenger vehicles from sliding underneath them, greatly increasing the chances of surviving a crash into the back of a large truck,” IIHS said.
“But in crashes involving only a small portion of the truck’s rear, most trailers fail to prevent potentially deadly underride,” the group said in a statement.
While eight guards tested passed a test in which a car struck the center of the trailer, in tests in which about a third of the front of a car ran into a parked trailer, the underride guards did not prevent the front of the vehicle from sliding underneath.
In 2011, IIHS — which is funded by insurance companies that write 80% of the automobile policies in the United States — petitioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for tougher underride standards.
The group said at the time that guards can “buckle or break away from their trailers, with deadly consequences” when hit by cars.
The trucking industry is encouraged that the trailers improved in two of the insurance institute’s tests, said Sean McNally, spokesman American Trucking Associations. Collision-avoidance technology in cars and trucks may do even more, he said.
“Highway safety for both the motoring public and our drivers is our first priority,” McNally said. “Underride guards designed to save lives of automobile occupants must do exactly that, save lives.”
The best way to prevent car-truck fatalities is to educate the public about how to share the road with trucks, McNally said, adding that about 75% of such fatalities are “unintentionally initiated or caused by the driver of the car.”
