House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

The most common fatal injury in trucking accidents is being crushed by falling in the exposed space between the front and rear wheels of a truck. To minimize serious injuries and death in rear-end collisions, safety guards on the back of trucks have been required for more than two decades. Yet, the gaps between the side of a trailer's bed and the road remain a large, empty space that can quickly become a deadly danger zone. Tragically, side collisions accounted for 17 percent of fatal two-vehicle crashes involving a large truck in 2019. 
 

Implementing measures to prevent side impacts with trucks can save lives. Studies conducted in the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Netherlands show that side guards dramatically decrease the number of fatalities in trucking accidents. After truck side guards were mandated in the U.K., cyclist fatalities dropped 61 percent and pedestrian fatalities dropped 20 percent for side-impact accidents. For these reasons, I will be introducing legislation requiring that all heavy-weight trailers and truck tractors be equipped with side underride protection systems. This evidence-based requirement, recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), would apply to every trailer with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds and every truck tractor with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 26,000 pounds. 
 

I ask that you join me in supporting this simple solution to prevent fatalities within the Commonwealth resulting from side underride collisions.