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Trapped Under Trucks

propublica.org

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Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#211

Post by HankB99 »

bombcar wrote: post #121
KennyBlanken wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Retrofitting loading docks to work with lower-floor vehicles would be trivial, not to mention many buildings that could not accept deliveries would be able to.

You’d potentially have to load from the side. Probably more effective to move the trailer wheels to the far back of the trailer.

That presents problems navigating tight corners where tractor trailers already have difficulty. I see some trailers where the position of the wheels can be adjusted. I wonder if that is for weight distribution or for the roads planned to be driven.

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#212

Post by robnado »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #17

There's something I don't understand about this crash in particular: It sounds like Marcos' death is blamed on the actions of the truck driver, as well as the lack of an under-ride bumper. But don't we normally consider drivers responsible for crashing into objects towards which they're travelling? It doesn't sound like a situation where the truck jumped into traffic suddenly from a hidden driveway: > The truck edged…

It happened to me previously to be surprised by a stopped vehicle on the road. All you need is a large SUV driving in front of you blocking your vision of anything ahead. Then the SUV changes lane suddenly to avoid the stopped vehicle. Good luck reacting in time especially if you don't keep a multi-second separation between you and the car in front.

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#213

Post by llampx »

concordDance wrote: post #166
noisy_boy wrote: post #85

> The beefier, more robust rear guards would’ve cost an additional $127 each, according to industry estimates. > They said there’s not enough research to support a government mandate, which would impose huge costs on businesses that operate on thin profit margins. So thin that they can't afford $127 a truck; they are running a no profit charity out of the goodness of their heart and that pittance of an one-time amoun…

I would be immensely surprised if they ended up actually costing $127 in practice. I expect that's very much a best case scenario (lowest bidder estimate for unregulated side guards with no installation costs).

And your support for this assertion is...?

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#214

Post by AlgorithmicTime »

dahart wrote: post #132
renewiltord wrote: post #52

Fortunately, if you avoided listening to environmentalists, transit advocates, and people with children and bought a high ride-height vehicle like a Dodge Ram 1500, your vehicle will be tall enough to actually contact the truck or trailer without a decapitation! Pickups and SUVs are way safer, guys. Up to you what you do with the information.

> Pickups and SUVs are way safer The NHTSA stats seem to somewhat contradict this claim. Looks like light trucks ( https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/... - see Table 3, page 23 (Fatal crashes) and page 24 (Injury crashes). Trucks are heavier and have a longer stopping distance, and for a long time (until 1999) they had much lower safety standards than passenger cars. That’s not to mention it’…

[dead]

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#215

Post by toast0 »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #198
toast0 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But then as soon as you put a cost associated with saving a life, the whole idea of safety first goes out the window. In this case, underrides are clearly avoidable and really don't cost that much to prevent. Retrofitted truck solutions are available, cheap, and easy to install. There's a reasonable argument to not even bother with retrofitting. This has been a known issue for decades, just start building it into n…

> eventually the old trailers will age out and/or become uninsurable How long do trailers last?

I wasn't able to find good numbers on this, but I'd imagine the vast majority of trailers last 20 years or less.

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#216

Post by detuur »

Schnitz wrote: post #7

Europe has mandatory underride guards for this reason since 20+ years ago.

I really thought this was missing in the article. I understand that it's about the situation in the US, but at the very least a comparative analysis could've been made how the US regulatory environment differs from others around the world.

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#217

Post by miguelazo »

esyir wrote: post #188
IOT_Apprentice wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet legislators are in the grasp of associations, who want no such legislation to occur and either block it or never allow it to be proposed. They are in the clutches of corporations & oligarchs.

That sounds like the problem to solve then. Otherwise you're just applying a band-aid to an aortic rupture.

Hence my comment about the US being what it likes to call a "failed state," which was promptly and thoroughly down-voted. :-)

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#218

Post by miguelazo »

concordDance wrote: post #166
noisy_boy wrote: post #85

> The beefier, more robust rear guards would’ve cost an additional $127 each, according to industry estimates. > They said there’s not enough research to support a government mandate, which would impose huge costs on businesses that operate on thin profit margins. So thin that they can't afford $127 a truck; they are running a no profit charity out of the goodness of their heart and that pittance of an one-time amoun…

I would be immensely surprised if they ended up actually costing $127 in practice. I expect that's very much a best case scenario (lowest bidder estimate for unregulated side guards with no installation costs).

And even if it were double? Or triple? Still seems negligible given the impact and even the margin of profit per load.

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#219

Post by cafard »

jmclnx wrote: post #8

>An investigator with the local police department blamed the collision on the truck driver, who was initially charged with negligent homicide, though charges were eventually dropped I wonder why. Another issue is the size of trucks. The state where I lived: * Truck size was limited, large trucks were only allowed on one Highway. Goods were transferred to smaller Trucks for transport to factories. * Driving trucks on…

Trucking deregulation began several months before Reagan was elected.

Re: Trapped Under Trucks

#220

Post by WirelessGigabit »

ahtihn wrote: post #202
WirelessGigabit wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please no. Sundays in Belgium were awful. Nothing to do. At least now in the USA I can go do what I want. It's like any other day. I don't need to stuff everything in my Saturday. And if that means that I'll pass a couple of Semi trucks? No problem. Hell, I'll move out of the way for them. After all, there isn't a single thing in my hands that hasn't been delivered by a truck.

> Sundays in Belgium were awful. Nothing to do. I never got this? The only thing to do in your mind is shopping? Restaurants, cinemas, other leisure activities are all available right?

You'd be surprised. I'm literally looking at a mall right now that is open Mon-Sat each week + 1 Sunday / week.

If I have 8 days off per month that literally removes 3/8, or 37.5%.

Also larger grocery stores aren't open unless they get an exception.

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