NHTSA Reviving Effort to Require Side Underride Guards for Commercial Truck Trailers
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) this week seeking comment on a new truck safety study that could lead to new requirements mandating side underride guards for commercial truck trailers. Specifically, NHTSA is asking for comment on the effectiveness, feasibility, costs and benefits that would result from side underride guards, including their impact on passenger car safety. Congress directed NHTSA to conduct the new research under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021. The Government Accountability Office also recommended NHTSA conduct additional research into side underride protection in a 2019 report to Congress. While the ANPRM limits a possible side underride mandate to newly manufactured trucks, similar proposals in the past were later expanded to include the retrofit of existing trucks. This is the third time in the last 20 years that the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) raised the possibility of a side underride equipment mandate. EMA and other stakeholders successfully challenged those proposals based on incomplete data on costs, feasibility and effectiveness of side underride equipment used by the DOT. The research data presented in the latest ANPRM is similarly lacking. NHTSA draws conclusions based on incomplete and conflicting data rather than relying on accurate empirical data from third-party research. NHTSA estimates that side underride equipment would be 97% effective in preventing fatalities and 85% effective in mitigating serious injuries – preventing 17.2 fatalities and 69 serious injuries annually at a cost of 1.2 billion to the trucking industry. EMA is attending the upcoming meeting of the NHTSA appointed federal Advisory Committee on Underride Protection and will file comments with NHTSA opposing a side underride mandate.