NHTSA rear-underride rule to take effect in 2023

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s final rule aimed at improving protection for drivers and passengers in a rear-underride crash will take effect early next year.

Rear-underride crashes occur when the front end of a vehicle crashes into the back of a larger vehicle, such as a tractor-trailer. The rule requires that the rear-impact guards on trailers and semitrailers possess sufficient strength and energy absorption to protect occupants of passenger vehicles in multiple crash scenarios. NHTSA’s final rule upgrades the current safety standards addressing rear-underride protection.

The agency previously announced that a final rule was coming, but the notice was officially published in the Federal Register on Friday, July 15. The rule’s effective date is set for Jan. 11.

“NHTSA’s priority is the safety of everyone on our roads,” NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff said in a news release. “This new rule will improve protection for passengers and drivers of passenger vehicles while also meeting a critical mandate from Congress under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”

The final rule adopts similar requirements to Transport Canada’s standard for rear-impact guards.

“Adopting these standards will require rear impact guards to provide sufficient strength and energy absorption to protect occupants of compact and subcompact passenger cars impacting the rear of trailers at 35 mph,” the notice stated. “Upgraded protection will be provided in crashes in which the passenger motor vehicle hits: the center of the rear of the trailer or semitrailer; and, in which 50% of the width of the passenger motor vehicle overlaps the rear of the trailer or semitrailer.”

Side-underride guards

The 2021 infrastructure law included a provision requiring the U.S. Department of Transportation to complete research on side-underride guards “to better understand the overall effectiveness.” The report would be tasked with assessing the feasibility, benefits, costs and any effects on intermodal equipment, freight mobility and freight capacity associated with installing side-underride guards on newly manufactured trailers and semitrailers with a gross vehicle weight rating of 10,000 pounds or more.

The advance notice of proposed rulemaking will be a step toward fulfilling this requirement. It also is expected that the advance notice of proposed rulemaking will inform the agency whether or not to move forward with a rulemaking to mandate side-underride guards.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association is against any push toward an eventual mandate of side-underride guards. The Association has previously spoken out against the Stop Underrides Act, which would require underride guards on the sides and front of all new tractor-trailers.

OOIDA has said that a mandate would be impractical and costly, “thus outweighing any perceived safety benefits.” LL