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>According to NHTSA’s latest figures, more than 400 people died in underride crashes in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. But experts say
by miguelazo 3y ago
>According to NHTSA’s latest figures, more than 400 people died in underride crashes in 2021, the most recent year for which data is available. But experts say the true number of deaths is likely higher.
>The technology at issue — strong steel guards mounted to the back and sides of trucks — is simple and “relatively inexpensive,” Friedman argued. “The costs are small.”
Talk about a "failed state".
- local_crmdgeon 3y agoFailed state is when no underguards
- masklinn 3y agoIt’s rather when the industry can keep fighting for 50 years to save pennies over lives, and faces no punishment for it.
- bombcar 3y agoYou'd think some of the trucking companies would do it just for publicity, if it was cheap enough. Then again, cars could all come with roll cages and five-point harnesses, and they don't, so there's some limit to safety equipment.
- MrFoof 3y ago>Then again, cars could all come with roll cages and five-point harnesses, and they don't, so there's some limit to safety equipment. No roll cages historically was the result of no federal safety belt law. Roll cages are great until an un-belted occupant has their head hit the cage. "Second collision." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_impact_(safety) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_impact_(safety) At this point New Hampshire is the last remaining holdout on state safety belt laws. Live free or die (in a car crash). Even then, you still have the issue of noncompliance. Automakers don't want to end up on 60 Minutes in an episode about how their "safer car" kills some people, because some of those people were un-belted in a crash. Numbers are all over the place for people not wearing their seat belt, but it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 1 in 10.
- memefrog 3y agoNobody is going to hear about someone not wearing a seatbelt dying in an accident and blame it on the manufacturer of the vehicle.
- KennyBlanken 3y agoMost modern passenger car passenger cells don't need roll cages because their passenger safety cells are properly engineered, and because crash safety is much more comprehensive, with wheels and suspension components designed to intentionally fail and crumple in a crash so they aren't pushed into the passenger cell. A ton of cars pass Euro-NCAP and IIHS crash and rollover tests with flying colors. Roll cages were a Thing because, well, this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPF4fBGNK0U Obviously not every car is up to snuff, especially at the bottom end of the market. You couldn't pay me to drive a current production GM, Ford, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, etc compact sedan. 5-point harnesses aren't really that necessary at 0-60mph speeds in a vehicle with modern airbags; the fifth strap is mostly for anti-submarining but a number of manufacturers have produced seats that are anti-submarining and anti-submarining dashboard design (both material and shape) is a thing as well. All of it's possible, it's just a lot of car companies are cheap and consumers don't really shop based on stuff like "is there an anti-submarining design to the dash."
- bombcar 3y agoA well-built roll cage should prevent the very issue that is under discussion here (it should shove the truck up or the car down, not decapitate the driver). But that's clearly not very desirable.
- renewiltord 3y agoWhat exactly do you do with the publicity? You're a B2B company. I've never heard of someone calling up Safeway and asking if they use SafeGuards Trucking over RideHighOrDie Trucking. Literally zero incentive.
- bombcar 3y agoB2B companies have customers. And two really big trucking companies are UPS and FedEx, along with Amazon, too. Walmart, also.
- kelnos 3y agoThe article points out that one company did indeed do it for PR reasons.