Products Liability Law Daily Wrap Up, NHTSA NEWS—ODI INVESTIGATIONS—ODI asked to investigate need for semi-trailer side underride guards, (Dec 3, 2021)

By Susan Lasser, J.D.

The petitioners point to the high number of annual deaths and serious injuries resulting from collisions with semi-trailers that lack side underride guards.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) has opened a defect petition (DP) to evaluate the safety issue of standard van-type semi-trailers not offering side underride protection to motorists. An estimated 4,000,000 vehicles make up the generic population of vehicles that lack the feature. The agency will determine whether to grant or deny the petition based upon the findings of the initial evaluation (NHTSA ODI Investigation, No. DP21-004, November 17, 2021).

ODI received a petition dated September 14, 2021 requesting an investigation of all van-type semi-trailers due to collisions with passenger vehicles and other vulnerable road users-pedestrians, bicyclists, or motorcyclists-resulting in significant injuries or death due to the lack of side underride guards. The petition did not identify a single trailer manufacturer or equipment supplier.

Currently, there is no Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) requiring side underride guards on semitrailers. The petitioners contend that the failure to include a side underride guard amounts to a safety defect in the semitrailer’s design, construction, and performance. In support of their petition, they assert that there have been at least 500 deaths and 5,000 serious injuries annually from collisions with semi-trailers lacking side underride guards. Further, the petitioners state that side underride guard technology is available, has been well-studied, and would be an easy and inexpensive solution to the known hazard of side underride collisions to the traveling public. The petitioners mentioned two known equipment suppliers of a side underride guard device.

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