Be Careful Around Those Semi Trucks
Another day, another way to die in a car… and this time, the IIHS blames weak safety standards for semi-truck underride guards for this mangled Malibu [ report PDF here]. The IIHS argues that
Under current certification standards, the trailer, underride guard, bolts, and welding don’t have to be tested as a whole system. That’s a big part of the problem. Some manufacturers do test guards on the trailer. We think all guards should be evaluated this way. At the least, all rear guards should be as strong as the best one we tested
But the best underride system they tested (a Wabash) still would have likely decapitated the Malibu driver in a 30% offset hit at 35 MPH. So even if government enact the stricter standards endorsed by the IIHS, you’ll still have to hit the rear of a semi truck fairly square-on in order to reap the benefits. But of the 2,200+ passenger car occupants who died in crashes with large trucks in 2009, we have no idea how many were square-on rear crashes like the one tested. And until the IIHS gets the government to regulate bumpers height, crash test-derived standards will always be less effective when they leave the lab and get into the messy real world of the American road.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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With a 53 foot tandem trailer the rear wheels will slide back. At GM we demanded that the driver slide his wheels, before we would put an 8000 lb lift truck on the trailer. However the driver had to re position his wheels before going back to the highway. I have no idea why.
FWIW, the Canadian regulations on the strength of these back undercarriage assemblies are different and more stringent than the US ones.
Well it's better than none at all, which is the way it used to be until the death of Jayne Mansfield spurred the legislation for them in the first place. Read more about it here. www.findadeath.com Sorry can't direct link the page-Look her up in the directory if interested .
That under-ride guard is set at 22" from the ground to the bottom of the bumper by the Federal Government. But there are a lot of pickup trucks you can drive off the lot with bumpers higher than that. You are two times more likely to die from a post collision vehicle fire to a pickup truck (because the bullet vehicle underrode the bumper and hit the gas tank) than backing over someone with it (yet we have back up sensors) - so how about an under-ride guard for pickup trucks like these energy absorbing ones from sparebumper.com...