Underride committee prepares for busy 2024

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Advisory Committee on Underride Protections has a busy 2024 planned.

In a notice scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, Jan. 17, NHTSA announced that the committee will have meetings on Feb. 8, March 13, April 24 and May 22. Each meeting is scheduled to run from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Eastern time.

Prompted by a provision in the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the advisory committee is tasked with making recommendations to NHTSA regarding underride crashes. The committee conducted its first two meetings in 2023.

Potential rulemaking

Last year, NHTSA issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking that considered requiring side underride guards on tractor-trailers. The agency received about 2,000 comments on the advance notice and has since moved the rulemaking to the “analyzing comments” stage. NHTSA is not expected to take any action until October 2024. Presumably, the agency wants to hear the advisory committee’s recommendations before deciding how to proceed.

The debate over whether to mandate side underride guards has been controversial.

Safety groups have long advocated for the requirement, while opponents point to the cost-benefit analysis and the feasibility.

The preliminary research provided by NHTSA indicated that the annual cost of the mandate would be as much $1.2 billion, while saving fewer than 20 lives each year.

The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, representing small-business truckers, said an underride guard mandate would be “premature and shortsighted.”

Previous meetings

The underride committee’s November meeting focused on potential unintended consequences.

Jeff Bennett, a committee member, raised concerns about operational hurdles.

“I agree that we should be doing all that we can do to reduce fatalities on the road – no question. My heart goes out to those of you who have lost loved ones. I can’t imagine a greater hell on earth,” said Bennett of the Utility Trailer Manufacturing Company. “ But at the same time, these side underride guards do change the system, and they change the system in ways that we are not fully aware … We do not want to trade off side underride deaths for another type of death. Because truck drivers can’t tell when they have high-centered something until it’s really too late.” LL