Why are buses exempt from having an underride guard?
Attorney
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Why does the federal law exempt any vehicle whose rear height is high enough to decapitate a driver or passenger? When will the manufacturing of buses add this very simple safety design feature that will save countless lives like that of Mr. Buseman?
I read about the Buseman boy crashing into the rear of the school bus on October 24, 2007 in Wright County. The first thought that occurred to me was what did the front of the car look like following the crash? The reason I asked that question had to do with rear underriding guards and school buses being exempt from having that important piece of safety equipment. Buseman was driving a 1994 Chevrolet Corsica, a small sized passenger car. I looked up photographs of the car that showed the front of the Corisca and it appears there was what they call an underride by the car. That means that the front of the Corsica rode under the rear of the bus. When a rear crash occurs, the car's passenger compartment is closed down or invaded and the occupants can come into contact with the rear of the bus exposing the driver to a serious or fatal head injury. The police report states Buseman was wearing his lap/shoulder belt, a restraint that would make his ducking to avoid the second collision nearly impossible. If underriding occurred, even a momentary lapse in attention would close down the time of impact between the passenger compartment and rear of the bus compartment.
If you don't understand what I'm talking about, the next time you are out driving look for a semi-truck trailer and notice at the rear under the rear doors is a metal cross bar that has the effect of stopping cars from underriding the trailer. This is exactly what it is meant to do. In effect it is meant to save the life of the rear driver and passengers in a rear-end collision. It protects the integrity of the passenger compartment to avoid killing the occupants.
When a passenger vehicle collides with a large truck or trailer rig, this mismatch is further aggravated when the passenger vehicle continues beneath the rear or side of the taller truck.
These are called truck underride crashes... and often decapitate the upper half of the passenger vehicle and its occupants.
Federal law requires trucks to have underriding guards built into their design but exempts any vehicle used to transport students to and from school. See 49 U.S.C. § 13506; 49 C.F.R. § 372.101.
In the United States, there is a new federal motor vehicle safety standard requiring a rear underride prevention guard for newly manufactured truck trailers beginning in January 1998. The 22- inch maximum permitted height was based on 30 mph crash tests, yet contradicts prior NHTSA 35-to-40 mph crash test research that recommended an 18-to-20 inch height as necessary to protect smaller vehicles in 40 mph crashes. The guard strength is minimal, and the test is only a slow-push on an exemplar guard.
The new regulation also totally ignores the side underride hazard, which accounts for almost half of the U.S. fatalities in underride accidents each year.
See http://www.autosafetyexpert.com/Assets/Docs/article-underride.pdf
Why does the federal law exempt any vehicle whose rear height is high enough to decapitate a driver or passenger? When will the manufacturers of buses add this very simple safety design feature that will save countless lives like that of Mr. Buseman?