RTSSC Research Reports
Report Details

Title:	Underride: Do Rear Impact Guards Help?
Publication Date:	Nov 2007
Type:	Issue Brief

Abstract

Because trucks are typically much heavier than other vehicles in the traffic stream, studies have shown that accidents are more severe when trucks are involved in collisions (Craft, 2001; NTSB, 2001). When a smaller vehicle rear-ends a large truck, the smaller vehicle is likely to ride underneath. Further, studies have shown that of the 400,000 large trucks involved in motor vehicle crashes each year in the United States, 18 percent are involved in rear-end crashes as the struck vehicle (Craft, 2001; Knipling, 2007). This type of crash increases the already high probability of death or serious injury for smaller vehicle occupants because of the intrusion parts from the truck or the smaller vehicle into the passenger compartment of the smaller vehicle (Rechnitzer, 1993). NHTSA reports that a truck is involved in one of every eight traffic fatalities; and that a large truck is 2.6 times more likely than other vehicles to be struck in the rear (NHTSA, 2007).