Underride guards on tractor-trailers have recently been proven inadequate and unsafe in Boston car accidents. Impact in low-speed crashes often times results in deadly consequences according to recent studies conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).
Boston personal injury lawyers understand the severity of these failing underride guards and urge you to practice safe and alert driving when sharing the roads with tractor-trailers. The IIHS has estimated that more than 5,000 passenger vehicle occupants are injured every year when their vehicles collide with the back of large trucks — more than 400 people die in these accidents.
In the study conducted by the IIHS, three tractor-trailers were used: two carrying the underride guards of Canadian standards and the third meeting the U.S. standard. The results from the U.S. tractor-trailer raised questions about how and why these guards failed. The study also determined that the lower-speed accidents were the ones with the worst results.
The Canadian vehicles were able to stop the car before possible injuries reached the occupants of the passenger vehicle, while the tractor-trailers meeting U.S. standards caused damage that would have surely injured, if not killed, any font-seat occupants.
“You might be riding in a vehicle that earns top marks in frontal crash tests, but if the truck’s underride guard fails — or isn’t there at all — your chances of walking away from even a relatively low-speed crash aren’t good,” reported the IIHS.
“Damage to the cars in some of these tests was so devastating that it’s hard to watch the footage without wincing. If these had been real-world crashes, there would be no survivors,” said IIHS President Adrian Lund.
If you or a loved one has been injured in an automobile accident involving a tractor-trailer, contact the Boston car accident lawyers at The Law Office of Jeffrey S. Glassman for a free and confidential consultation to discuss your rights. Call 877-617-5333 or contact us through the website.