IIHS Advocates for Mandatory Side Underride Guards in Large Trucks to Save Lives

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) should reconsider its dramatic underestimate of the number of lives that could be saved by requiring side underride guards for large trucks, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety said in a recent regulatory comment.

Requiring side underride guards could save more than 10 times as many lives as NHTSA projects, IIHS Senior Research Engineer Matthew Brumbelow wrote in the comment.

In an underride crash, a smaller vehicle crashes into a truck and goes completely or partially underneath it. This makes serious injuries to people riding in the smaller vehicle more likely. Federal regulations require tractor-trailers to have underride guards on their rears, but not on their sides.