Stoughton Underride Guard Earns Kudos from Crash Survivor, Insurance Institute

Photos: Stoughton Trailers

NASHVILLE -- The efforts of the design and engineering team at Stoughton Trailers to improve the design of the trailer rear underride guard has earned the company the ToughGuard Award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the respect of Marianne Karth, a survivor of a rear-impact crash that took the lives of two of her daughters.

On May 4, 2013, Karth was driving her full-size sedan when she was struck by a tractor-trailer, sending her car spinning backward into the rear of another tractor-trailer. The tractor-trailer's rear underride guard could not withstand the crash and detached from the trailer, allowing Ms. Karth's car to slide backward under the trailer. The trunk of the car went under the rear of the trailer at the outer edge, and the back of the trailer body entered the back seat of Ms. Karth's car, killing her 17-year-old daughter, Anna Leah, instantly. Mary Lydia, her 13-year-old daughter, died a few days later from her critical injuries.

That tractor-trailer's rear underride guard met the 1998 Federal underride standards. In 2011, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety tested underride guards of eight major trailer manufacturers. All of the underride guards tested met the Federal standards of the day, but none of them were able to stop underride on the outer edges -- the so-called 30-percent offset zone.

Subsequent IIHS testing performed in March 2013 -- just two months before the Karth's fatal crash -- revealed that only one of the eight manufacturers had designed their guard to successfully prevent underride at the outer edges.

Once the IIHS findings were published, Karth began advocating for safer tractor-trailers. She even filed her own petition for an improved underride rulemaking that went to the Department of Transportation on May 5, 2014. In addition, her husband, Jerry, began writing letters to ...Read the rest of this story

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Trump: Infrastructure Plan Will Ride on Public Funds, Too

President Trump addressing Congress on Feb. 28. Image via WhiteHouse.gov

In his address to a joint session of Congress on Feb. 28, President Trump called for a $1-trillion infusion of public and private investment to repair and expand the nation's infrastructure. He devoted just about one minute of his hour-long speech to promoting that initiative, but it was the first time the president indicated that public— not just private— financing would be needed to fund his infrastructure proposal.

Invoking President Dwight Eisenhower, who championed the building of the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s, Trump said “the time has come for a new program of national rebuilding. America has spent approximately $6 trillion in the Middle East -- all the while our infrastructure at home is crumbling. With this $6 trillion, we could have rebuilt our country twice, and maybe even three times if we had people who had the ability to negotiate.”

Trump said he will be “asking Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1-trillion investment in infrastructure of the United States -- financed through both public and private capital -- creating millions of new jobs.”

What remains to be heard is exactly how the administration expects to pay for the lavish infrastructure outlay promised by the president. Before moving onto other issues, Trump noted further only that his infrastructure proposal will be “guided by two core principles: buy American and hire American.”

Despite the lack of details given, the American Trucking Associations was pleased for the attention paid to infrastructure in this major policy speech by the new president. “ATA was pleased to hear President Trump again sound the call to address our nation's need to improve our transportation infrastructure,” said ATA President and CEO Chris Spear in a statement to HDT.

“Trucks move 70% of our nation's ...Read the rest of this story